The Wisdom of Drinking
by isabellsah cullen
Summary: After a ladies night gone a little too far, Steph has to live with the actions her drunken-self thought were wise. Mostly fluff, some action, with a Babe HEA. Rated M .
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

**Long A/N: **The story is complete, so I will aim to post at least a chapter a week. The last JE book I read all the way through was Fearless Fourteen – I have the others, and even started fifteen but I haven't been able to bring myself to read them all yet. Soooo, this is set after FF. And for the sake of this story, let's pretend Steph hasn't admitted to herself that she loves Ranger.

Big thanks to Cara for having an initial look over and providing some great suggestions and feedback. As always, all mistakes are mine.

Additionally, please remember that this is a work of fiction, and I have taken a number of liberties with timeframes and possibly pain thresholds and memory/observational abilities. You'll see what I mean by the end of this chapter and the next. Also, I do not condone excessive drinking or making serious decisions when drunk, or driving when hung-over. You should always drink responsibly and make informed, sober decisions about any changes that may have repercussions. And on that serious note, please enjoy!

* * *

_The woman jolted as the gun discharged, the sick and final sound of metal impacting flesh echoing in her ears. She fell to her knees, her fist shoved against her mouth to muffle the keening wail that was emanating from deep inside her. Her heart ached, her soul screamed. He was dead. Her lover was dead. She used the wall to brace herself as she staggered to her feet and silently made her way into the passage and down, down the rickety ladder. Tears streamed down her face as she inhaled short shallow breaths in deference to the tightness in her chest. The man responsible for this would pay and he would pay dearly. She'd seen his face, watched him land the final blow, and she would know his name before the end of the day. Then she'd find a way to make him suffer the same way she had before she slowly tortured him to death. Oh yes. He would pay, and she was patient enough to wait until she could make the revenge all the more sweeter. _

**Chapter One - SPOV**

_Oh God. What had I done?_

I groaned, but the pounding in my head had me shutting up immediately.

Slowly curling into a ball, I willed the sloshing in my stomach to stop. The world underneath me seemed like it was spinning out of control. Sluggishly prying open one eye, I tried to squint around the room to figure out where I was. The blinding light was too much for my aching head, causing me to quickly close my eye.

_What the _fuck_? Seriously. _

My stomach rolled and I folded tighter in on myself. My mouth tasted like something had crawled in there and died. My tongue was so swollen it felt like it was stuck to the roof of my mouth. Laying absolutely still with my eyes tightly shut I dozed on and off. Waiting, hoping, and praying I'd feel better soon.

Hours seemed to pass before the world stopped spinning beneath me.

I cracked open my eyes. The light was not so blinding. _Maybe the sun had exploded and I was forever plunged into wonderful darkness? _I could hope anyway.

I peered at my surroundings and let out a relieved breath.

_Thank God. _I was alone in my bedroom. _But damn did I need water, and some aspirin_. _Definitely aspirin_. But that involved moving. _Damn_.

My memories were slowly coming back; all mixed up and jumbled around, but at least I knew this was self-inflicted and I hadn't gone through a night of torture thanks to a skip or stalker. Ladies Night, Lula, Connie, and Long Island Iced Teas. _Shiiiiit._

Just thinking about all the Iced Teas I'd consumed last night reminded me my bladder was full to capacity. If I didn't get up right this minute, I was going to have to replace my mattress. I did _not _have enough money for that.

Groaning, I rolled off the bed, remembering to let my feet hit the ground first only at the last second. I stumbled upright and the world started spinning again.

_Oh shit. At least I was up now._

I staggered to my bathroom on jelly legs, probably doing a very fine imitation of a newborn giraffe when I missed a step and found my hands on the floor along with my feet. I nearly didn't make it the last two yards to the toilet.

I managed to relieve myself, strip and sit down in the bottom of a pelting hot shower with my arms wrapped tightly around my legs and my head resting heavily on my knees. I was thankful I'd forgotten to turn on the light. The semi-darkness of the room made my head pound less. At least I wasn't as ridiculously nauseous as when I first woke up. _Don't get me wrong, if I stood up too fast, I was unquestionably going to barf, but the sloshing was down to a minimum._

When the hot water started to run out, I carefully sat up and climbed out of the shower. I wrapped myself in a towel and sat down heavily on the toilet seat. That was as far as my legs managed to carry me.

I sucked in a couple of deep breaths and tried to take stock of what kind of condition I was in. Throbbing head, check. Aching feet, another check. My whole body hurt, but especially my side. Probably I'd just stumbled into something in my drunken wanderings and gotten a few more bruises to add to my collection for my efforts. The weird thing was, it kind of felt like I'd been burnt, but itchy at the same time. Maybe I _had_ somehow managed to burn myself. I didn't know why Lula and Connie would have thought it was a good idea to let me near something hot enough to burn when I was drunk, but who knew what had happened? It didn't hurt too much more than the rest of my body or maybe some of the alcohol was still in my system and was dulling the pain. Either way, I didn't have enough energy to muster up the effort it would have taken to check it out.

_Boy, this is going to be a long day._

I needed sugar, grease, salt, and caffeine, probably not in that order. First I definitely needed water. I reached over and grabbed a cup by the sink filling it full and slowly drinking the cool water.

It took me nearly an hour to get dressed in a baggy Rangeman t-shirt and black yoga pants. I pulled my hair up into a messy ponytail and put on enough makeup so that I didn't look like something out of a horror movie. By the time I made it into the kitchen to down a couple aspirin, some of my memory was back and I remembered how I'd ended up in this predicament.

It all started with Morelli.

_Okay, that's not entirely true. _

It all started with Jenny Ragucci.

_Hmmm, that's not exactly right either._

It all started when Morelli mentioned something about having good luck with sluts, _including one Jenny Ragucci_, and smiling about it... and then looking at me. It wasn't just any old look, either. It was one of those... looks. The kind of look that makes everyone around you stare with raised eyebrows, wondering if you are also a slut.

This had happened eight days ago and I'd let it slide at the time. Joe and I had been getting along really well. We'd even been cohabitating mildly successfully. He'd actually mentioned the 'm' word. _Not marriage! Moving in together on a trial basis. Cripes, we weren't cohabitating _that _well. _So I'd shaken off my annoyance.

Until two days ago. When I'd found out Morelli had been seen chatting for two hours to Jenny Ragucci at the grocery store.

I'd casually asked him about it. But, when he'd launched into an account of the last thirteen years of her life, my heart sunk a little. Then when he started rambling about Jenny's adorably sweet six year old daughter, I'd started to get a tight pain in my chest. He told me Jenny's husband passed away four years ago while fighting over seas; I could barely breathe. Finally he'd told me Jenny was a teacher at the local grade school, and that she'd recently purchased a quaint three bedroom house. This news caused something to shift deep inside me and I just knew_._ Jenny Ragucci was perfect for him. _Hell, there was a twinkle in his eye._

So I did what I thought would be best for both of us. I'd calmly told Joe that we weren't going to work out and that I'd probably never say yes to a proposal – any proposal that had us permanently cohabitating. It hurt, more than I thought it would. Joe was safe. There was history and comfort there and we were always there for each other. _Even if he did complain along the way_. Now he wouldn't be.

Saying he'd been blindsided might be a little bit of an understatement. He was angry and hadn't spoken to me since. He'd taken Jenny and her daughter, Lilly to Pino's for dinner the same evening. Hopefully we'd still be friends once he'd cooled off and maybe he'd even realize why'd I'd broken up with him. _Only time will tell._

Yesterday afternoon, I'd confessed everything to Lula and Connie and by six-thirty we'd hit our first bar. After that it was a blur of dancing, drinking, walking, eating, and more drinking. There may have even been some crying at one point.

Which is how I found myself sitting in my kitchen, unbelievably hung-over, feeling sorry for myself. "You did this to yourself," I muttered.

It was time to get on with what was left of the day. I stood slowly, not wanting to press my luck, and grabbed my pocket book. One missed call from Connie and a couple of texts from both her and Lula.

A quick glance at the clock showed the time was around midday so I decided to head to the Bond's Office and at least read through the new files Connie had for me. I had a feeling I'd _way_ overspent last night. I put on the darkest pair of sunglasses I owned and headed out.

Stepping outside of my apartment building made me flinch. It was like I wasn't even wearing sunglasses; the piercing light shot straight to my brain and increased the pounding there. My body ached and I swayed a little. Even my skin hurt. I took a large gulp of water and moped over to my car at the far side of the parking lot.

Just looking at my ten year old faded blue Ford Escort made me sigh. No air-conditioning to keep me cool, no tinting to lower the sun from excruciating to bearably bright.

The ten minute drive to the nearest McDonalds with my windows down made me feel a bit better. The large fries and coke helped me feel human again. Stepping into the air-conditioned Bond's Office improved my mood by around two hundred per cent.

"Hey Steph! We were getting worried." Connie greeted me. She looked none the worse for wear and was calmly filing her nails.

I gave her the death glare, but my sunglasses must have blocked its deadly effect.

"White gurl, how's your tattoo looking this morning? Mine's a little red, but Tankie said that's normal, but I should have left the Cling film on to keep the cream on it for twenty four hours."

_Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit!_

_I didn't._

_I couldn't have._

_I wouldn't._

_Would I?_

I pulled my sunglasses off and fell down onto the couch as my legs gave out.

* * *

_TBC..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books.

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Two**

I swallowed nervously and cleared my throat twice before I managed to get out, "T-tattoo?!" in a strange squeaky imitation of my voice.

Both Connie and Lula turned to me, their eyebrows just about shooting off their foreheads. _Crap._ I closed my eyes and tried to search my memories. _Zip. Nada. Nothing about a tattoo_. _Maybe it was something small? Yes, I'm sure I would have gone for something small and delicate._

"What did I get?" I asked tentatively, flipping up both my wrists and looking down at my feet and ankles.

_And maybe _where_ did I get it?!_ My entire body ached, and my fuzzy head didn't help things. I'd always thought a tattoo on my inner wrist would look nice, but then I realised I'd never be able to hide it from my mother there. _Damn, where did I get it? _I got a sinking feeling in the bottom of my stomach as I remembered the pain radiating from my side. _Surely not, the feeling covered way too large of an area to be a tattoo. I'd never get something that big, right? _

"Steph, you were in the chair for like, hours. You don't remember getting it?" Connie wondered, her face a picture of stunned amazement.

I rubbed my hand across my forehead. _What did I remember?_ "I remember bar hopping for a couple of hours… and I remember getting out of the taxi and climbing into bed sometime near dawn." _It was all such a blur._

Lula folded her arms across her chest and shook her head disapprovingly. "Gurl, you're missing three-quarters of our night out. Boy, do you an alcohol really not mix. You had maybe four Iced Teas, total. We switched you to water 'cause we know what you're like."

_Damn, I was more of a light weight than I'd previously thought._ Four Iced Teas didn't even qualify as drunk; maybe tipsy at a stretch. I was pathetically hung over for that small amount of alcohol. I sat forward a little, making direct eye contact with both Lula and Connie. "Could you please just tell me what I got? Is it that bad? I feel like you're both trying to delay telling me."

Both Connie and Lula exchanged a glance. _That didn't make me feel reassured at all._

"Oh! I know. I've got a photo of it on my phone. Hold up a sec," Connie murmured, digging around in her handbag until she pulled out her phone with an excited fist pump. She handed it over to me, and I froze, completely gobsmacked. _Holy shit. I was going to kick my ass when I was feeling better. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And pretty. But mostly stupid! And stunning, and heartfelt, and beautiful. And large. Quite large. I bet it was really, really expensive. And yes, it was on my stupid side. Damn._

"We passed by the tattoo parlour between bar three and four. Lula got all excited, so we went in. You started talking with the artist, gave him a couple hundred dollars, a photo of you and Ranger together and told him exactly what you wanted. We returned after about forty five minutes and he started work on you. I think you pretty much dozed through the entire thing! The guy said to go back in a couple of weeks to get the colour filled in."

I flicked back and forth through the handful of photos Connie had taken and pressed a hand against my side. Damn. Lifting up my shirt I realised I was wrapped up firmly with Cling film. There was white cream covering my view of my tattoo. Panic welled up inside me. I had no idea how to look after a tattoo! Was it good that I didn't get it wet this morning, or was I supposed to wash it every day? What if it got infected?

The entire tattoo stretched from just below my bra line, down the right side of my rib cage, stopping a couple of inches above my hip. It was quite narrow though. Batman and Wonder Woman stood embraced in a passionate kiss. Batman's mask was off, but his suit was on and his cape draped around himself and Wonder Woman's legs. It looked like they were floating in the sky together. Directly below the couple, the Wonder Woman logo sat inside the Batman insignia. The tattoo was starting to become tied together with some shading and miniature bats and stars surrounding it tastefully. The whole think was a little dark, mysterious, and beautiful. I was kind of jealous my drunken-self had thought it up. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Wonder Woman had my face and body and that Batman was Ranger? I could already tell that the detailing in the faces would be unbelievable once colour was added – it already actually _looked_ like us and they even had our hair styles. Tears prickled in my eyes. It was beautiful, and perfect, but bittersweet because it would never be _real. _I blew out a frustrated breath.

Boy, not to mention this would really piss Joe off if he ever saw it. And probably make Ranger angry that his face was on my body – people might recognise him – but it also might make him pull back from my life if he thought I was getting too attached. The tattoo screamed attachment. It might scream something else, too, but attachment was a good word for now. I'd think about what it really meant later. _Much later. Maybe. Or never worked for me too_.

_Okay, so now I just need to avoid Ranger and Morelli for the rest of my life._ _Or at least avoid them seeing me without a shirt on. No biggie. Really. Sheesh._ _Well at least I'm not speaking to Morelli at the moment. Not to mention the fact that he was never seeing me naked again. Ever. So that should be alright. That just left Ranger._ _Damn. I'd never get to be naked with Ranger again._ All of the air left my lungs in a whoosh, my vision tunnelled and horror settled heavily on my chest. I couldn't live with that reality – never was a long time._ He'd promised me someday! _Maybe I could still get naked with him. I'd just have to make sure all of the lights stayed off. My breathing slowly returned to normal. _Stay calm, Stephanie. Ranger won't find out_.

My mind suddenly kicked into gear. _If anyone found out about this, it would be all over Trenton in the blink of an eye. Ranger could already know!_ I glanced down at the phone in my hand. _This was evidence and it needed to be destroyed._ "You got any photos on your phone I can look at, Lula?" I inquired slyly.

She tossed her phone over to me. "Sure!" _Sucker._

"What did you end up getting, Lula?" I wondered to keep her and Connie distracted as I quietly started deleting all the photos of my tattoo off both of their phones. But not before I sent one to my own phone. _I definitely needed a copy of this for myself._

I paused as Lula whipped the top she was wearing straight off of her body. She stood loud and proud, with all the self confidence in the world, in the middle of the Bond's Office in just a pair of leopard print tights, and a matching bra. Anyone from the street or sidewalk could see in. _Damn, some days I wished I had her confidence._

There on the back of her right shoulder was '_I 'heart' my Army Ranger'_ in beautiful cursive writing. The words were done in black ink but the love heart image was outlined in red with a green tank drawn inside. It made me smile and I hoped Tank had appreciated it. Then I remembered. My eyes cut to Lula. "Did you tell Tank what I got tattooed?" _Please let her say no, please let her say no!_

"Nah, he was too interested in mine to ask about yours." Lula pointed at her phone and then at her back, striking a sassy pose.

I bit back a smile and snapped a few shots. She snatched the phone back and started texting madly. I figured she was probably sending a photo to Tank. _But if what she'd said was true, that meant he did know that I had one, just not what it was. That was not good. He would tell Ranger. Ranger would want to see it. _Looked like I was back to the original plan of avoiding Ranger for the rest of my life.

I settled my gaze back on Connie thoughtfully. "And you, Connie? Have you told anyone about this?"

She just laughed and shook her head. "No way, I don't think anyone would believe me if I told them."

I bristled. "What? Why? What's that supposed to mean?"

"C'mon, Steph. You're not _that_ much of a rebel – everyone knows how your mother would react if she found out you got a tattoo. And, you're not exactly known for a high pain threshold; yeah, you can be tough when you want, but you really quite… soft." She shrugged and went back to filing her nails.

My eyes nearly fell out of my head. "_Soft?!_"

"Yeah, and don't forget to mention sweet," Lula added, picking up her shirt and tugging it back on. It was black with _'Meow' _in thick gold letters. _Only Lula. _But I couldn't process that right now.

"Soft _and_ sweet?!" I shrieked.

"And innocent."

I face palmed, and instantly regretted it. My head wasn't up to face palming yet. I should probably give it a couple of days. I took a deep breath through my nose and exhaled out of my mouth. "I'm a _bounty hunter_. I am not soft, sweet or _innocent_!" I growled.

"Babe."

I jumped three feet in the air as Ranger settled his warm hand on the back of my neck. _Shit. I couldn't feel the tingle through all this hung-overness. Where was my radar when I really needed it? I was supposed to be avoiding him at all costs. His voice sounded like it was smiling. Damn, but his voice sounded good. Like music to my ears. Not too loud, nice and smooth, sexy._ I leant back into his touch and sighed as his scent washed over me and his warmth seeped into my skin. All my sluggish senses started waking up and zeroing in on Ranger.

"I heard you ladies had a night out."

I whipped my head around to face him so fast it took a second for the room to settle back into place. I frowned at Ranger, dressed in his street outfit, _damn he's gorgeous,_ and pointed a finger at his chest. "What did you hear?" I demanded, my voice a little panicky.

I got one raised eyebrow as my answer.

_Uh oh, I think I just revealed my hand. Good job, Plum. Way to play it cool._

"Something you need to tell me, Babe?" His eyes slid down over my body in a slow perusal that left me quaking with desire.

One look was all it took for my body to melt. I tried to lean away to put some distance between us. It didn't help. His warm hand remained on my neck, massaging my muscles gently. I bit back a moan and gave myself a little shake. _Focus, Stephanie. Now is _soooo _not the time. _I shook my head back and forward frantically. "Nope. Nothing to tell. Nothing exciting happened at all."

Lula snorted. I turned and glared at both her and Connie. Connie caught on quicker than Lula.

"What happens on a ladies night stays with the ladies. It's a sacred woman's rule. We'll never speak of the night gain," Connie murmured sarcastically.

"Oh! Yeah, that's right, Batman. Can't break a sacred rule," Lula said, nodding vigorously.

I thought about face palming again.

"Stephanie."

I shivered at his tone. It was both a warning and a promise. He would find out what happened, no doubt about it. Then I'd pay for not telling him. _Something to look forward to. Maybe I'd move states. Or countries. Australia would be nice at this time of year._

His hand slid around to gently grip my chin as he tilted my face up. He studied me for a few minutes, gave a little nod, brushed his thumb over my lips and left.

I sighed and watched him pull away from the curb in his Porsche Cayman. _I'd absolutely have to avoid him from now on. At all costs. He'd be determined to get answers and I didn't have the ability to say no to him. _I swung back around to face the girls. "Both of you swear to me on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake that you will not tell another soul that I have a tattoo or what my tattoo is!"

Lula pursed her lips. "Gurl, you know Turtle Cheesecake is my favourite."

Connie nodded her head in agreement with Lula. "Yeah Steph, Red Velvet Cheesecake is mine."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. _Why me?_ "Fine, I'll bring you both one each as long as no-one ever finds out about this. Ever. If I find out you've told, I'll expose your deep dark secrets to the Burg," I threatened.

Lula and Connie glanced worriedly at each other and nodded quickly. I relaxed slightly for the first time since I'd learnt I'd gotten a tattoo.

"Okay, Steph. You've got yourself a deal. But you'll probably need to bring a few skips in first, before you pay up." Connie handed me four files. I grabbed them wearily.

"Why?"

Lula clucked her tongue, making me feel like I'd done something wrong. "Damn Skippy! Gurl, you emptied out your bank account to pay for that tattoo last night. You think tattoo parlours are open twenty-four seven? Hell no. You had to pay extra on account of the late night fee. And you paid it all up front, including the colour."

_Thank you irresponsible drunk Stephanie. Rent is due next week, today being Friday and our rent being due on Tuesday, and you decide to spend all of our meagre savings? Great. That meant we had to go out and pick up skips hung over. Not to mention talk to Tank. And avoid Ranger. And go back to the tattoo artist and find out how the hell to look after my tattoo and when exactly I could get it finished. To decide if I even _wanted _to get it finished. Who was I kidding? How could I not get it finished? It was me and Ranger, together, permanently. I had to finish it._

This was going to be a long afternoon.

* * *

_TBC..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Three - SPOV**

After finding out the name of the tattoo parlour from Connie, grabbing a couple of sets of handcuffs and a fully charged stun gun from the store room, and having a quick glance through my files, I headed out. _If I managed to capture all four skips today, I'd make three hundred and fifty dollars. It would cost me eighty dollars to keep Lula's and Connie's silence. That would leave me two hundred and seventy for this month's rent. I'd need to make the other eight hundred or so in the next four days. Fan-fucking-tastic. That was counting on the fact that we'd actually get new skips in. And that I wouldn't need to buy anything else, like food, gas, or tattoo maintenance stuff for the next few days. Yup, no problems here. _

I slammed into my seat and took a deep breath. Slowly but surely I was starting to feel better. Now I just needed a plan. And to get hydrated.

*_R^S_*

Step one – I needed to talk to Tank, stat. The sooner I convinced him to keep my tattoo on the down low, the longer it would take Ranger to find out about it._ Maybe. _I probably had a day, two at the most before Ranger knew more about my night out than I did. But getting Tank to keep quiet would buy me some hours at least. Now all I had to do was convince Tank.I headed over to the nearest Seven Eleven, purchased another bottle of water and dialled Tank's number.

"You hurt?" he asked, answering on the first ring.

I blinked once. "Huh? No. Should I be?"

"Some asshole stalking you?"

I just sighed and leant back heavily on my car. Tank waited in silence until I actually answered. It sounded like he was in his office at Rangeman. I could hear him click-clacking on his keyboard.

"No," I muttered.

"Need help with a skip?"

I rolled my eyes. "Not yet, but the day is still young."

Silence echoed across the line for a few beats. _Tank's way of saying 'Why the fuck are you calling me then?' _That's what I assumed he was trying to convey, anyway.

"I need to talk to you," I explained.

I heard him shift in his desk chair slightly. "No."

I let out a frustrated sigh. "Tank, please."

"No." Papers shuffled, and then the click-clacking started again.

I pouted at the ground. "It's nothing mushy or girly or anything."

There was another long pause and then, "No."

I ground my teeth together and decided it was time to pull out the big guns. "Fine, I didn't want to have to do this, but you've left me no choice. I have in my possession photos of you cuddling three little kitties looking adorable and not at all like a macho badass."

I tapped my water bottle against my leg nervously. The click-clacking had stopped. No papers shuffled. No chair groaned. Panic started to build up inside my chest. _God, what had I just done? I'd blackmailed a Merry Man! They knew all sorts of ways to slowly torture me._ My mind raced with the endless possibilities and my gaze darted around the street and shop, looking for any lurking Merry Men. My panic built and built and built until I was nearly hyperventilating. Then I hit that point where you've used up all your panicking energy storages and you slowly fall back down to a calmer state. Tank was silent so long I had to check the phone to see if we'd been disconnected. I bit my bottom lip. We were still connected. "Tank?" I asked wearily.

I finally heard his chair squeak, a few drawers slam open and shut and the jingle of his keys. "You're lucky I like you. Don't move. Be there in five." He disconnected.

I frowned down at my phone. _Ranger must have taught them all the same phone etiquette course. _I didn't even bother questioning how the Merry Men knew where I was at all times. It was one of those things I liked not to think about._ At least he was coming to meet me. _

I was leaning against my car, finishing off my water when Tank arrived after five minutes and forty five seconds. I'd timed him. _Not a bad effort. _

He stepped out of his black, _of course_, Hummer. He was wearing sunglasses that were darker tinted than mine, making me jealous. His black Rangeman shirt stretched across his broadly muscled chest and arms, and his black cargo pants were moulded to his powerful thighs. _Lula was one lucky woman. _He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head slightly in the direction of the small café across the street. I sighed, tossed what was left of my water bottle inside my car and locked it. Heaving my pocket book up high on my shoulder I marched towards Tank bravely.

_Show no fear Steph! If you let him see your fear he will tear you apart. _When I reached his side, he placed a firm hand around my elbow and we crossed the street together. _Okay, so far so good. _We sat down at a table in the far left hand corner, Tank with his back to both walls, watching. I sat across from him, waiting. When he relaxed, I took off my sunnies and leant back in my bench seat. He raised another eyebrow and the waitress was standing next to our table in the blink of an eye.

"What? Your whole wheat, multigrain turkey and bark sandwich didn't fill you up at lunch today?" I wondered with a tiny grin.

Tank shot me a look that would have made stronger men piss themselves. The waitress took a healthy step backwards. I had it on good authority that Tank liked me though, so I tried not to be too worried. Not to mention what Lula would do to him if he did something to me. Then there was always the threat of Ranger's wrath after that. That made be relax and smile at Tank.

"Club steak sandwich with the lot, two serves of fries, chocolate thick shake and a slice of today's cake," he ordered, glancing between me and the waitress. "You say anything to Ranger, your dead," he warned, settling an intimidating look on me.

My grin stretched wider across my face. _This was excellent! I knew the Merry Men couldn't enjoy Ranger's no sugar, no fat, and no flavour diet plan. Well, okay, to be fair. Ella did an excellent job of making grass and bark taste pretty good. But even she couldn't hide what it really was._

Tank glanced back at the waitress and inclined his head in my direction. I took that as my cue to order. "I'll take one of the all-day breakfast specials with a jumbo coffee, thanks."

She scribbled in her note pad and smacked her gum. "Cream and sugar, honey?"

I nodded. "You bet."

"I'll bring your food around shortly."

I didn't even manage a thank you before she darted off.

"Talk."

I settled back into my seat and stared at Tank. _I still wasn't sure how I was going to play this. I was pretty amazed I'd even gotten him to meet me at all. _"Does Ranger know you're here?" I wondered, fiddling with the salt and pepper shakers.

"Personal time."

"Right. Thanks." I nodded slowly, spinning the shakers around and around and around. _It was nice of him to take his personal time to come and see me. I'd have to pay him back somehow, as a thank you._

"Steph, talk to me," Tank said gruffly, laying his big hands over mine to still their movements.

I grinned sheepishly and slid my hands into my lap. He moved the shakers over to his side of the table and folded his arms across his chest.

"So, last night –" His hand shot up and covered my mouth.

"Stop right there."

I pushed his hand off and huffed. "What? Tank, this is important!"

"If I hear that some asshole fu – slept with you when you were drunk, I'm going to have to kill him," he warned dangerously.

I rolled my eyes. _Because I wasn't an independent woman who could make her own choices? Even if they were stupid ones?_ "You can relax, Tank. I didn't sleep with anyone, I didn't do drugs, didn't break the law or get into any trouble," I assured him. _At least not that I remembered anyway._

He eyed me carefully. "I'll be the judge of that."

I chuckled and shook my head at him. I got another raised eyebrow. _God, it was just like talking to Ranger._

"Ranger's doing some digging," Tank advised me seriously.

"I know. He'll find what he's looking for sooner or later. I'm just hoping it won't be sooner and that it won't be from you." I met his eyes and held them for a good ten seconds until he started to nod.

"You've got my silence as long as whatever you tell me doesn't put you in any danger."

"You might want to define danger," I muttered.

Both eyebrows rose at that one. "Don't really think I'm gonna be the problem, anyway. Women can't keep their mouths shut."

The waitress gave Tank a filthy look as she dropped off his thick shake and my coffee. I just shrugged. When it came to Lula and Connie, they really did have trouble keeping their mouths shut. They loved to gossip, thrived on it even; it was their main hobby."I've got Lula and Connie covered."

Tank inhaled about half of his shake in one gulp. "Good. Now you tell me everything."

"Or what?" I wondered, _he was going to make me?_

His face settled into more serious lines. I sighed and launched into my tale, starting with Morelli's 'good luck with sluts' comment and finishing with this morning's trip to the Bond's Office, leaving hardly anything out. I figured blurting it all out at once would be the least painful option. The waitress dropped off our food somewhere in the middle of my story. For lack of a better word, Tank appeared to be stunned when I finally finished talking. _Perhaps that was just his processing face? Who knew? It's not like I got to spend a lot of time with him on a regular basis._

"Show me your tattoo," he ordered.

I recoiled, shaking my head fervently.

"You told me it was personal, I get that. You also said Morelli would throttle you if he ever saw it. And I know you're reluctant for Ranger to find out about it. You tell me what you got done, or I'm driving straight over to the tattoo parlour and they're gonna tell me what it is."

_Damn, I should have left that small detail out. I blamed my hung over brain for telling Tank the name of the shop. That was an overshare – big time. _"I can't show you it. It's still all bandaged up. I've got a photo though," I mumbled.

Tank simply held out his hand.

"Promise me, you won't tell anyone what you see. Especially not Ranger?" I begged quietly holding my phone tightly in my hand.

He inclined his head, keeping eye contact with me. "You have my word I won't tell Ranger."

I dropped the phone into his palm. He took a glance, froze and looked back up at me searchingly. Then he stared back down at the image intently. "Morelli might call Ranger out over this," he finally said after a few minutes.

"Good thing he's out of the picture for good then, and he's never going to see me topless again. Or bottomless."

Tank sat back and studied me intently. I started fidgeting. _What? It was nerve-racking! Six foot six and around two hundred and seventy pounds of a man staring at you without blinking would make anyone nervous. _Eventually he spoke again. "This had to hurt like a bitch."

"I couldn't say – apparently I napped through it," I snorted.

Tank chuckled once, then broke out into rumbling laughter that shook our whole table.

I waited until he wound down before holding out my hand for the phone.

"Damn, Steph. Shit like this would only happen to you. It's a sweet tat," he said, giving me the phone back.

_That was practically a poetic soliloquy from Tank. _"Thanks, Big Guy. It's not quite finished yet, though."

He just nodded thoughtfully. "You got plans for the rest of the day?"

"Yeah. I need to visit the tattoo shop and find out how the hell to look after this. Then I need to go and pick up a few skips so I can start making a dent in my rent that's due on Tuesday."

Tank stood up and dropped a couple of bills on the table – more than enough to cover both our meals and a generous tip. "Let's ride."

He came around to my side of the table and hauled me up, leading the way out of the café before I could say a word. _Huh._ I slid my sunglasses back on and followed him outside. He took my elbow once more and led me directly to his car. Before I knew what had happened, I was buckled into his passenger seat and we were halfway to the tattoo shop.

"I don't remember inviting you to come along," I said.

Tank smirked but stayed silent. _Fine. Maybe I was actually a tiny bit relieved to have someone with me. But there was no way I was telling him that. He'd take it as permission to invite himself along with me all the time. _We parked on the street and headed inside the shop. A tall, leanly muscular man that looked vaguely familiar stepped forward to greet us. "He ain't your boyfriend. You in some kind of trouble?" Tattoo man asked.

_How does this happen to me? Do I look so small and defenceless that every alpha male in a five mile radius feels the urge to protect me?_

"You give my gurl here a tat last night?" Tank demanded, arms folded across his chest intimidatingly.

The guy snorted. _He was either really brave or really stupid._ He folded his arms across his chest as well, shaking his head. "No way she's _your_ gurl. Yeah, maybe I did. What's it to ya?"

Tank gave a small nod and moved to stand in front of me slightly. "I look out for her when Ranger can't."

I rolled my eyes. _Oh, please_.

"Mañoso? That's what I thought. That makes you Mañoso's woman, huh?" Tattoo guy said to me, nodding respectfully.

I folded my arms across my chest and glared at both men. _Jesus F-ing Christ. Not this Mañoso's woman crap again. _"First off, I'm my _own_ woman. Second, I look out for myself. You both got that?" I scowled.

Tattoo guy smirked. "Oh yeah, I can see why she's Mañoso's."

I stomped my foot petulantly. I couldn't help it._ Men were so frustrating._

"She needs some help with her tat," Tank advised stoically. _No doubt he was sensing that at any moment, I was about to hit Rhino mode._

"Yeah? I did good work, what's the problem?" Tattoo guy demanded, bristling up.

_Men and their egos. _"No problem, I love it. I just don't know how to take care of it," I reassured him.

He eased off a little and took a step forward. Tank's hand shot out and grabbed the front of his shirt.

Tattoo guy held both his hands up in the air. Tank nodded. Then they shook hands. _Men!_

"C'mon. I'll take you in the back and we'll have a look." Tattoo guy led the way, with me sandwiched between him and Tank. We passed five tattoo stations. I had a brief flashback of myself, Lula and Connie all reclined out on the chairs, laughing and chattering away. I shook my head to clear my memory as we headed through a curtained area at the back of the shop. A small kitchen, couch, recliner and TV were set up, along with what looked like a piercing bed station. Tattoo guy motioned for me to get up on the bed. _Awesome._ I jumped up and sat there waiting. Tattoo guy made a _come on, hurry it up_ motion with his hand. I blinked, puzzled and glanced at Tank. _Had I missed something?_

"Your shirt, Steph," Tank stated, the corner of his lips twitching.

_Shit. _I took a look around the room. _Tank and tattoo guy were the only other occupants. I certainly had more privacy in here than in the shop front. What the hell._ I dropped my pocket book on the ground near my feet and tugged my shirt off. I'd chosen a sports bra this morning. I was glad I hadn't picked out something sexier. _I'd have never been able to look Tank in the face again otherwise._

"You gonna hit me if I take a look?" Tattoo guy addressed Tank.

_Hello, what about me?_

Tank folded his arms menacingly across his chest and stood, legs braced apart, by my side.

I rolled my eyes again. "Just don't touch my boobs and you're good to go," I encouraged. _Otherwise we'd be here all day, and I had skips that needed catching._

"You're Mañoso's woman. I'm not even going to _think_ about touching your tits."

_Alrighty then…_"Glad we all got that straightened out."

Tattoo guy washed his hands, and snapped on some gloves. Then he pulled over a rolling chair and started unwrapping the cling film from my body. He set to work gently cleaning my tattoo with warm water, some kind of soap, and paper towels. Once he'd done that, he spread a thin layer of ointment over the entire tattoo. He rolled backwards, disposed of his gloves and started counting rules off his fingers.

"Don't scratch, itch, rub, or pick your tattoo. No baths or swimming. No tanning beds. No tight clothes. Stay out of the sun. Wash your tat with this soap three times a day and then apply this cream. Make sure you use clean hands when you touch it. At the end of two weeks, it should look like it's healed. It won't be fully healed for up to seven weeks. You come see me in a couple of days and I'll take another look. Don't want you wrecking this masterpiece by getting your tat infected."

I blinked and looked sideways at Tank. _That was a lot of rules for me to remember._ Tank glared at Tattoo guy.

Tattoo guy sighed and stood up. "I'll get you a pamphlet and make you up a care pack, no charge." Tattoo guy stepped back out through the curtain.

I grabbed my shirt and carefully eased it back on. "Tank," I whispered.

He raised an eyebrow.

"You got to get him to keep quiet about my tattoo. He seems like he might brag about the fact that he got to tattoo 'Mañoso's woman'."

Tank flashed his teeth, gave a little nod and followed where Tattoo guy had just exited.

I blew out a sigh of relief. _Today was turning out to be pretty productive, all things considered._

* * *

_TBC..._


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Four **

Ten minutes later, I had a booking for two days' time, free of charge, for a check-up with Tattoo guy, who I learned went by the name of Sketch and another booking for six weeks' time to finish my tat. Tank pulled away from the shop and headed back to the seven eleven where we'd left my car. I hoped it was still there in one piece by the time we got back.

"Need help with your skips?" Tank idled his Hummer behind my Escort.

_It was still there. Still faded. Still air-conditioned-less._ "Can I call you if I need a hand?" I wondered.

"Anytime."

"Cool. Thanks for everything today, Tank. I really appreciate it. I'll find some way to make it up to you for taking personal time," I promised, jumping down out of the car.

"Don't sweat it, Bombshell. You've got my number."

I nodded, shut his car door and took a step back. He waited until I was locked inside my Escort before he finally pulled away. _Tank was a good man. A little scary, but mostly pretty darn awesome. _

*_R^S_*

I had another quick skim through my files while I gulped down the rest of my now luke-warm water, and decided on Loralie Corbett. She had a five hundred dollar bond for criminal mischief. Apparently she'd taken a baseball bat to the mailbox that her cheating ex-husband had gotten in the divorce. She sounded like my kind of woman so I was hoping she'd been an easy start to my very, very late skip chasing day. Loralie was currently renting a small townhouse over on Roosevelt. I put my car in gear and headed out. I had almost a straight run to Loralie's neighbourhood but had to stop at a set of traffic lights only two blocks from her house.

Jeanne Ellen Burrows pulled up beside me in her brand new, state of the art, black Jaguar. She rolled down her window. Mine, _unfortunately_, were already down to try to combat the lack of air-conditioning in my car. Jeanne Ellen had bigger boobs, a smaller waist, a tinier ass than me, and made leather clothing look good. She was always cool, calm and collected. She was a better bounty hunter than me and made a hell of a lot more money per annum. She might even have a closer relationship with Ranger than me. _Let's just say, if my windows had been up, I would have mimed out a glitch with the electric button just so I didn't have to talk to her._

"Stephanie Plum." Her mouth curved into a small, almost polite smile that grated on my nerves.

I hadn't seen Jeanne in a while. Not that that was an unusual occurrence. Like Ranger, if she didn't want to be seen, no-one would ever know she'd been there. She was as elusive as smoke, just like Ranger. I'd always wondered whether he'd been her mentor at some point. I didn't like that. Not one bit. I didn't like Jeanne Ellen much either, come to think of it. It didn't help that I was looking rather poorly today, and as usual, she was sleek, sexy, and not hung-over.

"Jeanne," I answered with a small nod.

"You had a big night last night," she remarked, giving me a placating smile. "I'd keep that tattoo to myself if I was you. Ranger's not big on commitment."_ Gee whiz. How had she found out about it? Before Ranger. And if she knew, who else knew as well?_

The light changed and her sleek car glided forward as her window slid up, but not before she managed to give me a '_I am your superior in every way'_ look.

_Yep. I really didn't like Jeanne Ellen Burrows._

*_S^R_*

The car registered to Loralie on file was, luckily enough, parked out front of her house. _Guess she was home._ I swung my pocket book up onto my shoulder and headed up the narrow front pathway. I gave three quick knocks. Loralie soon swung open the door.

She wasn't what I was expecting at all. She was around 5' 5" tall, brunette with a cutesy reverse bob, slender with probably d-sized breasts._ And did I mention she was pretty? _She was dressed in a smartly pressed business suit and had either just gotten home or was on her way out.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

I stuck out my hand and she hesitantly shook it. _Good sign_. "Hi, my name is Stephanie Plum. You've missed your court date. I'm here to take you down to the station to get re-booked."

Loralie just looked at me blankly. "What court date?"

I paused. _She seemed genuinely confused. _This didn't happen to me very often. Sometimes skips tried to act confused, but that was just a stalling tactic so they could run._ No way was Loralie running anywhere in her five inch Jimmy Choos._ "For the criminal mischief charge. You, uh, attacked a mailbox."

She looked blank for a split second more before I watched awareness come rushing back to her. Her eyes flashed, then narrowed, her cheeks turned red and she even growled a little. I took a cautious step backwards. _Just in case. Ex-husbands were a touchy subject – I should know_.

"Oh dammit! I completely forgot. Are they going to make me stay overnight? Shit. C'mon in. I'll just grab my stuff," she muttered, waving me in behind her. "I can't believe this. I should have known that asshole would press charges against me."

I followed her inside, noticing she hadn't unpacked yet. There were boxes everywhere. Loralie headed into the kitchen and started gathering things into her briefcase. Halfway through packing, she suddenly slammed her case down on the table and spun around to face me, her finger stabbing into my chest.

"We bought this beautiful miniature cedar chalet mailbox for our new house. Together. We both spent the day together choosing one you know? Because it's the first thing people will see when they come to your house. We wanted something nice, sturdy, but a little different. We fell in love with the stupid chalet mailbox at first sight! I'd bought this quaint cabin up in northern New York that he volunteered to renovate. We were planning to spend a month up there each year. He kept telling me it wasn't ready for me to see, he wanted it perfect. But that was all just a big excuse. He'd been taking _her_ there every weekend and screwing her brains out, in _my_ cabin! And now I'm going to have to sell it. We'd been married six months, dating for a year and a half before that. Guess how long he'd been seeing her? Three years! Three _whole_ fucking years. I was the other woman; not her! She was here first. And get this – she _knew_ he was seeing me, that we got married. We'd talked about children, bought that stupid house together. For what? God, what an _asshole_. I was so _stupid_. I never should have listened to my mother. Never should have married him," she ranted, pausing to take a few gasping breaths.

I rubbed my chest where she'd poked me repeatedly. _Damn was she ever preaching to the choir?_

She sunk down into one of her kitchen chairs, holding her head in her hands. I moved to sit down next to her and patted her lightly on the back. _Boy was she going through a tough time. I hoped she wasn't about to burst into tears._

"God, do you know how I found out? I went up there on a Saturday. I wanted to surprise him with a romantic dinner, warm food, company, and reward him for all the hard work he'd been doing. And bam! There they were, he was _screwing her_ on the dining room table," Loralie cried, slapping her palm against the dark timber table.

"Oh my God," I choked, horror suddenly dawning on me. _It couldn't be – right? No way._

"I know, right? The nerve of it," Loralie agreed, nodding at me in approval.

"No. I mean, I _know_, but Holy Shit. The same thing happened with me and my ex-husband. I came home from work and found them on the table," I explained in disbelief.

"No fucking way?"

"Betcha. The bitch didn't happen to have the name Joyce did she?" I wondered, half joking.

The look on her face had my eyes widening. I swallowed thickly. "Barndhardt?" I questioned.

"That skanky fucking bitch," she hissed.

I dropped my head down on the table and groaned, "God, she's like a disease that spreads her legs wherever she goes. Why can't she just limit herself to single men and leave the married ones alone?"

"Amen. But if these bastards would cheat with her, they'd cheat with anyone."

"I know. Can you imagine touching her? Imagine where she's been." I shuddered.

Loralie gave me a friendly pat on the back. "She kind of did us a favour - we're better off without them. Imagine if they'd gotten us pregnant?"

I shot up and stared at her with horror. "Bite your tongue! Besides, Joyce has been my arch-nemesis since grade school. I'm still convinced she slept with the Dick just to get back at me for sleeping with Morelli in high school. She had her eyes on him, but even back then horny teenager boys were wary of her."

"Well then, why'd she sleep with my husband?"

I paused. "Because she's a bitch."

Loralie just nodded like this made all the sense in the world. _Being a bitch still didn't give you the right to ruin other people's marriages though. _

"Alright, I'm ready to go in. Thanks for listening, Steph. Can I call you Steph?" she asked quietly.

"Sure. Let me just call Connie and we'll see if we can get you re-booked straight away."

Loralie locked up her house and we headed to my piece of shit car. She was kind enough not to comment on the lack of style, paint, or air-conditioning. We pulled into the police station just behind Connie. Loralie and I walked over to meet her and we all headed inside together. "Well, I'll leave you with Connie," I said, collecting my check from the docket lieutenant.

"It was very nice to meet you, Steph. Maybe we can grab coffee sometime?" Loralie suggested.

"Sure, it will be therapeutic. We can bitch about all the things we hate about our ex-husbands."

After giving Loralie my cell number, I left her and Connie with a wave. I still had three more skips to catch. I pushed through the door of the station, plotting my next takedown, when I had the bejeezus scared out of me.

"Babe."

"Damn it, Ranger!" I gasped, holding a hand to my pounding chest. _What the hell was he doing just lurking outside the police station for? _

His lips twitched slightly. He reached around behind me and grabbed the label on the Rangeman shirt I was wearing. "This is my shirt, Babe," he said, his warm eyes connecting with mine as they studied me. Liquid fire slid through my belly and swiftly travelled south.

I took as large of a step back from him as I could. My back hit the wall of the building and I folded my arms across my chest defensively. "It's comfy."

His eyes scanned over my face, no doubt noticing for the second time today my paler than usual skin tone, the dark puffy bags under my eyes and my scarier than usual hair. "You up to catching skips today, Babe?" He closed the gap between us, the warmth from his body penetrating mine as he placed both hands on the wall either side of my head.

I sucked in a deep breath as he bent his head closer to me, his nose just barely skimming mine. I didn't blink, I didn't breathe.

"You need help, you call me." _It was an order, not a question. _

I nodded slowly, our noses brushing against each other's. His eyes darkened noticeably, and just when I thought for sure he was going to kiss me, he was gone. I slumped back against the wall and watched his fine ass climb into his Porsche. _Damn. _I gulped in some much needed oxygen and waited until he'd pulled out of the parking lot before I walked over to my car on jelly legs.

* * *

_TBC..._


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

Thanks for all the wonderful reviews - I love reading each and every one!

* * *

**Chapter Five**

I pulled up outside Mooch's house on Bergen Court, feeling just a little, okay a lot, relieved Mooch's car wasn't parked out front. _He'd be on my case about how I treated Joe for sure. I didn't need that today._ Apparently Mooch's next door neighbour Butch McGregor was a real charmer. Drunk as a skunk at eight am, Butch had decided to take a leak on the Scotland Elementary school gates while children arrived for school. It was kind of poetic really – Mr McGregor taking a piss on his homeland. One big, fuck you, to his ancestors. Except for the fact that he'd flashed his junk at children. No-one needed to see that. I hoped the kids weren't traumatised from the experience.

I scoped out the street for a handful of minutes. There was no visible movement inside or outside the house. I decided it was probably okay for me to go and check it out.

I walked coolly up to the house and knocked on the door a few times. The door opened to a slightly balding, shirtless, Caucasian man, that was a solid five foot eight, with a good 200 pounds on him, most of which seemed to make up a beer gut around his middle. He had a five o'clock shadow that looked about a week old, bloodshot eyes, and emitted a smell of alcohol so strong it made my eyes water.

"What?" he asked, scratching his butt as he stood in the open doorway staring at me. "I don't remember hiring a ho for today. Only got a twenty, what will a twenty get me?" he mumbled, pulling a crumpled note out of his pocket and flattening it out slightly against his sweaty stomach.

I tried not to gag. "Well, Butch, if you get in my car with me I'll show you _exactly_ what twenty dollars can get you," I purred as seductively as I could manage. I shouldn't have even bothered. It was completely wasted on him.

"Whatever, lady. You don't have to sell it, I'm already buying." He slammed his front door shut and stumbled over to my car, going for the front passenger seat.

I quickly intercepted him. "Uh, uh, uh," I said, waggling my finger at him. "You get to ride in the back. You're my, my, uh, you're my prisoner see, and I'm um, going to punish you," I tried again. It seemed to do the trick. His eyes sort of lit up a little. _Gross._ I opened the back door for him and pulled out a pair of cuffs. _I was going to need to bleach my brain after this. _"You've been a bad boy, Butch," I whispered.

He climbed into the car and then he _actually_ held his hands out in front of his body _for me to cuff_. I couldn't believe my luck! I cuffed his wrists before he could change his mind, and used the leg shackles on his ankles. He just sat there and let me do it! I engaged the child lock on the door before shutting him in. _Piece of cake. I'd suffer through the ribbing at the cop shop no problem, and the lecture my mother would no doubt give me. This had to be my record for quickest capture ever. Easiest two hundred bucks I'd ever made._ I climbed behind the wheel of my car and drove off while Butch asked me when I was going to start punishing him.

_Alright. Two down. Two to go. C'mon Stephanie, you got this._

~*R_S*~

I rolled my car to a stop on Sixth Street, outside Lula's apartment, and stared across the street. Both of my next skips, Mandy Beecroft and Alisha Vincenzo lived in the same apartment building. Mandy and Alisha also both lived on the second floor. Mandy was in apartment 2F; Alisha in 2A. They'd gotten into a fight outside Cluck in a Bucket and the police had been called. I wondered if they'd mind getting rebooked together. _I was about to find out. Probably better to do them one at time, just in case they decided on round two. _I prayed that it would be an easy fifty bucks a piece.

I knocked on the door to 2A and waited just out of sight of the peep-hole. The door slammed open and a five foot three, maybe 125 pound, African American woman on five inch heels stormed out and started making her way down to apartment 2F.

"You think this is funny, bitch! You knock and run one more time and I'm gonna knock your teeth out!" Alisha roared.

It was probably best that I intercepted her before she made it to Mandy's apartment. On my best day I'd have trouble dealing with two skips simultaneously._ Today was far from my best day._ "Excuse me? Alisha Vincenzo?" I asked quietly.

She swung around so fast I thought her head had detached from her body. "Who the hell wants to know?" she demanded, stalking back to me and poking her finger in my chest.

_Oh goodie. I was going to get a bruise there if people kept doing that to me today._

"My name's Stephanie Plum. I represent your bail bondsman. You've missed your court date. I just need to take you down to get re-booked," I explained calmly and professionally.

Alisha folded her arms across her voluptuous chest and stared at me suspiciously. "Don't I know you?"

I regarded her carefully for a moment. _Nope, nothing sprung to mind. Except for the fact she reminded me a little of Lula. _"I don't think so," I replied.

"Mmm hmm. I do so know you. I recognise you now. You friends with Lula. You're Mañoso's woman," she said accusingly.

_Jeez, not this again. _"Uh, well. I _am_ friends with Lula. I'm not really Ranger's woman though. We just work together."

"Girlfriend, you're his woman whether you think you are or not. Now what can I do for Lula's friend?" she asked, sashaying back into her apartment and making a beeline to her purse.

I followed hesitantly, not taking my eyes off of her in case she decided to run. "Well, like I said. You missed your court date. I need to take you to get re-booked."

"Oh gurl, I don't know about that. Those cops give me the heebie-jeebies," she said, shaking her head as she grabbed a thin, gold jacket out of her coat closet.

I held back an eye roll. _What was it with this neighbourhood? Did everyone have a problem with cops? Don't answer that, Stephanie. _"According to your file, this is your first offence. They'll probably go easy on you. But if you don't reschedule or you miss your next court date, the judge won't be too impressed."

"I hear you girlfriend. Alright, how'd I look?" she asked, holding out her arms and doing a little spin.

I thought she looked pretty damn fine. With her gold jacket and faux snakeskin sling backs, she was wearing a pair of dark blue skinny leg jeans and a black sleeveless shirt that said _either you like bacon or you're wrong_. It made me smile, and it definitely reminded me of Lula. I wondered fleetingly if they were related.

"You look good," I answered.

"Hmph! Good? I look fabulous! Okay white gurl, I'm ready," she said, ushering me out of her apartment and pulling the door closed behind her.

We made our way directly to the elevator. _Alisha was my kind of woman._ When we stepped onto the curb, she glanced across the street and pointed at my car with her sunglasses. "Gurl, is that piece of shit your car?"

I hesitated. _If I said yes, was she going to refuse to ride in it? _"Maybe," I hedged.

"Damn gurl, that's an embarrassment. To you _and_ your man."

"Ranger's not my –" Alisha raised a knowing eyebrow at me, "Oh forget it. If Ranger wanted me to drive something different he'd…" I trailed off, dumbfounded.

"If he wanted you to drive something different, he'd give you a car? Gurl, Lula told me all about that man, you, and his cars. You be ruining his rep driving around in that heap of junk. How can a brother have respect for a man who can't even afford to give his woman something stylish or classy?"

I blinked stupidly at Alisha for a moment. _This was all too much for my hung-over brain to process. Even my fully functioning brain wouldn't want to process this._

"Gurl, let's just go. The longer we stand here, the longer we inviting trouble."

I glanced up and down the street and didn't see a soul. I wasn't sure what trouble exactly we were inviting, but I figured with my record, it didn't really matter. "Okay, Alisha. Can you just wait here for a moment?" I asked, slapping one end of the cuffs around her left ankle and the other to the one way sign conveniently located next to the sidewalk.

"Hey!" she cried, giving me a pissed off look.

"Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," I said.

She frowned at me for a moment more, and then shrugged. "Yeah, fine, I'll wait here. The whole thing is stupid anyway."

I tested that the cuff was secure and stood up. "Okay, I'll be right back."

"Wait, _where_ you going?"

"Got another skip in your building to get."

"Whatever. Don't leave me waiting long. You'll start ruining _my _rep."

I rolled my eyes skyward as I trudged back into the apartment building. _One down, one to go. _I slipped a second pair of handcuffs on my belt and re-shouldered my bag. I entered the building for the second time and went straight to apartment 2F. I knocked twice on the door and stood to the side again, hoping Mandy would come out.

She did. She swung open her door and just about walked straight into me. All five foot, two inches of her 100 pound, Caucasian self. She gave me a second glance and raised both her eyebrows before scowling at me deeply. "What the fuck you want, bounty hunter bitch?" she spat.

I cringed. _They both couldn't be easy could they? _"My name's Stepha –"

"I know who the fuck you are, what the hell you doing here?" she growled, taking a menacing step towards me.

I held my ground. She wasn't going to intimidate me. Even if I was intimidated, it would just be embarrassing to show it._ To you and your man_, echoed in my mind. _Great, thanks a bunch, Alisha. Was I going to think about that every time I nearly or did do something embarrassing?_

"You've missed your court date. I need to take you back down to get rescheduled."

"Fuck that."

_Not only was this not going to be easy, I had a feeling it was going to be really hard. Just what I needed today. _"Mandy, you need to come down to the station with me," I repeated.

She looked like she was about to do a runner. I took the opportunity to slap the cuffs on the wrist closest to me. We fought, Mandy bucked and twisted and shoved, but I ended up triumphant in the end, managing to get the other cuff on and her hands behind her back. I had a strong urge to do a victory dance, but figured it might still be too early to call it. I held onto the cuffs and pushed her back through the doorway of her apartment.

"Is there anything you want to take with you?" I asked, trying not to let my panting interfere too much with my words.

"Purse," she muttered.

I pushed her over to her side table and using one hand, scooped all of her stuff into her purse. I placed it in her hands and glanced around her apartment. "You want a jacket?" It wasn't really cool outside. I was almost hot in my light jacket. The sky was mostly cloudy now though and the wind was starting to pick up.

"Nah, bitch. Let's just go."

I shrugged and manoeuvred Mandy out of her apartment, pulling the door locked behind me. I took the elevator down again. When we stepped outside, Mandy tensed up and froze. "Oh _hell_, no! I ain't getting in no car with that bitch!" she screeched as I tried to drag her over to Alisha.

"Who are you calling a bitch, you skanky white trash slut?" Alisha hissed, shoving me to get to Mandy.

I stumbled slightly and swung back to stare at her and found her trying to reach around me to grab Mandy. I turned back to face Mandy and found she'd slipped her handcuffs from behind her back, under and over her legs and to the front. And she'd started swinging. I hadn't cuffed her tight enough. _Rookie mistake. _I ducked and dodged and tried to avoid her cuffed hands and get out of the way between her and Alisha. Just when I thought I was clear, I slid on some loose gravel and caught Mandy's fists with my face. Twice. I staggered backward, cradling my nose and right cheek.

_Fuck. That hurt. A lot. The woman would have been a hundred pounds when wet. Right. That was it._

Yanking my stun gun out of my pocket, I grabbed Alisha and hit her with fifty thousand volts. She went down. I lurched towards Mandy and received finger nail gouges across my neck before I managed to zap her. I staggered back, braced my hands on my knees and closed my eyes. _Damn it, why hadn't I thought of that ten minutes ago? Because I was ridiculously hung-over. Thanks again, drunk Stephanie. _I opened my eyes and stared, stunned, at the small puddle of blood that had accumulated on the sidewalk. _My blood. From my nose. Damn. _I stood back upright and swayed. _Double damn. _Time to call for help. There was no way I was going to be able to get both skips into my car, drive them to the station, and get them booked, while remaining conscious.

I sighed and pulled out my cell. "Tank?"

He paused for a moment, no doubt assessing the nasally, pain ridden twinge to my voice. "Problem?"

I nodded and then stupidly remembered he couldn't see me. "Yeah."

I heard two car doors slam, and an engine kick over. "Thought Ranger told you to call him."

I paused, chewing on my bottom lip. I looked down at my two lightweight skips and then sighed. "I'm embarrassed." I was also trying my hardest to _avoid_ Ranger.

Silence answered me, except for the faint sound of the vehicle running. "Where are you?"

I let out a slow exhale of relief. "Sixth Street, across from Lula's apartment."

"We'll be there in five."

My blood froze and my heart missed a beat. "Wait – no, Tank!"

The dial tone was already ringing in my ear before I'd managed to spit '_wait'_ out.

_Great. Just Great. He'd said 'we'. Meaning him and someone else. Most likely meaning him and Ranger. Ranger was going to be mad that I called Tank and not him. I was so not looking forward to that. _

I dropped down on the sidewalk a good yard away from my skips, that were starting to come around, and waited.

* * *

_TBC.._


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Six**

I heard them pull up, the two car doors slam. My heart rate picked up and I started fidgeting with my hands. The tingle on the back of my neck told me exactly who Tank had brought with him. I didn't look up until a set of black shit kickers entered my line of vision. My eyes traced up the toned legs, the muscled thighs, the trim hips, the defined abs, the broad chest, the lickable neck, and paused somewhere around his chin. _He had a really nice chin. Well defined. Manly. Chiselled. Lickable. Down girl._

"Little higher, Babe."

_I didn't like his tone. It was soft, calm… terrifying._ I gulped but slid my gaze up until it connected with his. His eyes froze me to my spot on the sidewalk. They didn't like what they saw. I gulped again and wondered just how bad my face looked.

His eyes narrowed. "Up."

I inhaled and slowly climbed to my feet. I thought I hid my swaying pretty well. Ranger reached out and locked a hand around my upper arm and tugged me into his personal space. The thrills of pleasure that raced through my body at his touch were combated by shivers of weariness. His other hand grabbed my chin, his grip firm but gentle. He tilted my face to the left and then to the right. I watched his eyes cut down to my two skips then flash over to Tank. Tank gave a little nod, hauled the two women up and started marching them over to my vehicle. I started to make a step in that direction when Ranger's hands tightened slightly.

"Babe. You're done for the day."

I took my eyes off of Tank, who'd sat the women down next to my car and was striding back towards us, and swung them back to assess Ranger. "Ranger," I protested, the rest of my words dying slowly as the chill from his eyes pierced me.

"You're done, Babe," he repeated firmly.

I shook my head and started trying to back away from him.

"But – hey!" I cried as he swung me up into his arms, holding me in an iron tight grip as he strode towards his SUV. It wasn't his usual Yukon or Porsche._ Oh no. This was something else. _It looked like a futuristic SUV that trumped all other SUVs. It was a Mercedes. That was all I could tell._ Oh, and that it was completely badass. Black on black detailing. Oversized tyres. _It was massive.

I didn't bother struggling against Ranger's grip. Not only was I too tired to try, I knew even on my best day it would be pointless. I tried not to enjoy the feel of his strong arms around me, the scent of his skin, or his handsome face. _I wasn't trying very hard. I lov- liked all of those things._

Ranger stood me up only momentarily to get the passenger door open. I was then swiftly placed inside, a towel dropped in my lap, the child lock flicked on, and the door slammed shut.

_Damn. _My chest tightened and a lump formed in the back of my throat. _He was _really_ upset_.

I watched out the window as Ranger tossed Tank the keys to my car. I hadn't even noticed him grab them out of my purse. Then Ranger was striding around to the driver's seat.

I lifted the towel and used the visor mirror to clean up my face and neck as best as I could. The temperature dropped about five degrees when he climbed inside and immediately took off. The ball of worry in my chest tightened some more. It took me a few goes to clear my throat, but I finally managed, "I need the money from those skips."

_Silence_. I chanced a quick glance in Ranger's direction. His jaw was tight, a tiny tick pulsing angrily near his cheek. _Oh boy. _I cleared my throat again. "Sorry I called Tank and not you. I should have called you, but I was embarrassed I let two silly women get the better of me." I waited with bated breath, tapping my fingers nervously on the arm rest.

_Nothing_. He reached over and hit the power for the stereo, filling the car with classical music. _Ouch. Fine. I could play that game. _I turned in my seat, offering him a good portion of my back as I stared out of the window fighting back tears of frustration and hurt. It took me about twenty minutes to realize we weren't actually heading in any particular direction. Ranger was just driving around Trenton. _Ranger. Just aimlessly driving around. _I dropped my forehead against the window and thought seriously about dozing off. _I would have too, except my face hurt too bad. Not to mention being on Ranger's bad side was like a physical blow to the chest._

It wasn't long after that that Ranger turned the stereo off. I didn't move, didn't turn around. _He'd either say what he wanted or he wouldn't._ He slowed down, eventually pulled to a stop and shut the car off. We were in an abandoned lot, not too far from my apartment. _Oh God, we were going to _talk.

I still jumped when I heard Ranger speak. "Bobby. Need you to meet me at Steph's apartment. Now."

I heard him move slightly, and assumed he'd hung up on Bobby and put his phone away. Tension built and built within the small space of the car. All of the air seemed to slowly get sucked out; my breathing grew shallow. I rubbed a hand over my chest, trying to ease the pain there.

He drummed his fingers along the steering wheel once. "I'm angry, Babe."

I flinched at his careful tone. "Really? I couldn't tell," I muttered impulsively to the window. _Great going, Steph. Are you _trying_ to make him _angrier?

I practically felt him grind his teeth. The finger drumming started again. "Shouldn't have been out catching skips today."

I flashed him a weary glance, his hands tightened on the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white. "Gotta pay the rent."

"You've had a good month. What happened to your money, Steph?"

I worried my bottom lip with my teeth. "Spent it."

He shifted to face me directly. "On what?"

I closed my eyes, turning my back on him again. "Not really your business, Ranger."

The atmosphere in the car darkened a little more. "You made it my business. I've made it my business. You spend it all last night?" he growled.

"Yep."

"Thought you were smarter than that, Babe."

_Ouch_. "I'm sure even the great Mañoso does stupid things when drunk," I snapped, turning around to glare daggers at him.

His eyes were so dark now they were black. "Don't make a habit of getting drunk."

I threw my arms up in the air in exasperation. "Of course you don't, you're Mr Fucking Perfect!"

"Stephanie," he warned.

I huffed out a breath and flopped back in my seat. "Drop me home, Ranger. I hurt, I'm tired, and I'm hung-over. You don't want me on the streets for the rest of today, fine. Just take me home so I can get enough rest so I'm on top of my game tomorrow. Please."

Before I knew what had hit me, Ranger's hand was tangled in my hair and his lips were moving against mine. A hot flash rushed through me. My body, the traitor, leant into his warm, welcoming body and he hauled me across into his lap. I found my arms wrapped around his neck and shoulders, holding on for dear life. The kiss was long, wet, and hard and had all my hormones standing up and chanting, '_Ranger, Ranger, Ranger!'_ My whole body was so hyperaware of him. Want for him crawled under my skin, setting my nerve endings alight. His tongue had taken my mouth captive and no prisoners were being left alive. When he lifted his head, I was melted against his chest, breathing shallowly, _okay I was panting_, and I could feel how hard he was underneath me.

"You make me fear," he murmured against my mouth.

It took me longer than it should have to realise he'd spoken, his breath hot on my lips, drawing me back closer to him. _Wait, what? _"What?"

He tilted his head back on his seat, his hands moving down to settle on my hips. I hoped he didn't feel the ointment on my tattoo through my shirt on his way down. "Scared, Babe. Worried. Whenever a call comes in that it will be bad news. Shouldn't have let you go without backup. Shouldn't have let you work at all. Should've taken you home and tucked you into my bed and nursed you better."

_Oh my_. _Nurse Ranger. That sounded promising._ _Hang on. Wait a second – let me?! _"Ranger, you don't _let me_ do anything."

"Babe." A small smile was lurking in the depths of his eyes and had me bristling instantly.

"Excuse me? What the hell does that mean?"

"Babe."

"Jesus, Ranger! You ruin a sweet moment with macho bull –,"

His mouth covered mine again silencing me for a long minute, distracting me very effectively. I dropped my head down onto his shoulder, panting slightly. _Hot damn. _I inhaled a deep breath and slid back so I could see his eyes. His pupils were dilated, his gaze piercing and intense. His look told me I was about a nanosecond away from being naked. I pushed upwards, using his knees as leverage to climb back into my seat. _I wasn't ready to be naked with Ranger again. I couldn't ever be naked with Ranger again. Stupid tattoo. Stupid drunk Stephanie. She sure had a lot to answer to. _

I was clipping the buckle of my seatbelt into the latch when Ranger's hand grasped mine. "You can't keep running from this, Babe." His hand gave mine a warm squeeze, which made me look back up at him. I noticed a slight flush high on his cheekbones. _It was comforting to know that for once I wasn't the only one affected by what was between us._

I frowned and thought about that. _Did he know Morelli and I were done? He maybe knew we were on a break, but he probably assumed we'd get back together again. That meant he thought for the time being, I was free to be in his bed. I knew I meant more to him than that. Hell, if sex was all he wanted from me then something was going very wrong with his plan. We'd only slept together once in three years. But on the flip side, I knew there could be nothing more between us than what we had now, even with sex thrown into the mix. He was him. I was me. I didn't fit perfectly into his world. I wasn't tough enough, fit enough, strong enough, sexy enough, brave enough, disciplined enough, or smart enough. He probably had no desire to even set foot in my world. But he wasn't offering me anything. Nothing more than he had in the past. The only thing I could figure he meant I was running from was sex with him. And I was._

"I want – no, I need more than just sex, Ranger. Especially from you."

His eyebrows shot up and if he wasn't Ranger, I would say the look on his face was almost surprise.

"C'mon, Bobby's probably waiting," I muttered after his face remained frozen in almost surprise.

_He was making me nervous. What had surprised him so much about my statement? I deserved someone who was committed to me, who loved me and cherished me just as much as the next person. Didn't I? Couldn't he understand that I valued his friendship above all else? That casual sex would ruin whatever was between us?_

His hand shot forward and cupped my face gently. "We're not done with this conversation."

I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip to stop myself from saying something stupid. Ranger sat motionless for a long moment, before frustration momentarily flittered across his features and he turned on the car.

Bobby and Tank were waiting in the parking lot of my apartment building when we arrived. Ranger hit a button on his side of the car and released the child-lock. I unclipped my seatbelt and jumped out of the car quickly. When I made it to Bobby and Tank, I glanced back. Ranger hadn't gotten out of the car. Somehow I knew he wasn't going to get out. That we'd reached some kind of stalemate. He'd back off now, away from me. That was his usual MO. Tears welled up in my eyes, making the world blurry, but I managed to raise my hand and give him a wave.

He burnt rubber backing out of the parking lot.

I rubbed a hand against my aching chest_. _I would miss him. A lot._ Understatement of the century. I'd miss him ten times, fifty times more than I'd ever miss Joe. _That said something. I couldn't admit to myself how much I felt for him. That would make it real. I wouldn't be able to cope with the aftermath of those feelings.

I didn't turn to face Tank or Bobby until I was sure I wouldn't burst into heartbroken tears in front of them. I jolted when I finally did face them. They were both staring at me, unblinkingly. "What?"

"You and Ranger have words?" Tank asked.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"He didn't look too happy." I blinked at Bobby.

"You don't look too happy either." I swung back to look at Tank. "Should have told him about the tattoo."

"Are you crazy?" I cried.

Flat eyes, no blinking. _Damn._

Bobby glanced back and forth between us.

"What tattoo?"

I folded my arms across my chest and fixed my best death glare on Tank.

"She got a tattoo of Ranger."

I threw my hands up in the air and brought them back down on Tank's chest. Hard. _It really hurt my hands._ He didn't even stumble back. "Are you kidding me, Tank! You gave your word."

"Holy Shit," Bobby muttered, giving me an impressed look. "Where is it?"

"Gave you my word I wouldn't tell Ranger." Tank raised an eyebrow at me, daring me to dispute his word.

I growled loudly with frustration. _I had to remember in future that the Merry Men were sneaky and that they took things literally._ "I asked you not to tell anyone! For all I know Bobby is Rangeman's biggest gossip."

"Ouch, that's definitely Santos' role. Not me." Bobby held his hands up, as if to ward off my anger.

I sighed and closed my eyes tightly. "Shit."

"How about we go upstairs? Bobby needs to check you out." Tank firmly held my arm and steered me into the building, Bobby following close behind. _At least Tank led us to the elevator. There was no way I could have handled the stairs in my current condition._

"Want to take a look at your tat, Steph," Bobby said.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes, giving him a deep frown. "No way."

"Want to check it's okay."

I shook my head from side to side determinedly. "Tattoo guy checked a couple hours ago. It's fine."

"Steph. Show Bobby."

The elevator dinged on my floor and we all shuffled out, Tank using my keys to open my apartment door.

"Jesus, you're not the boss of me Tank." I glared at him, dumping my pocket book on the entryway table.

"Hmm."

"_Hmm?" _ I repeated incredulously.

"You tell Ranger the same thing?"

I flinched. "What? Not exactly, no."

"Ten bucks says she did," Bobby said, grinning at Tank. "Take a seat, Steph," Bobby instructed.

I rolled my eyes at the both of them and all but collapsed on the couch. _I really was done for the day._

"Tank, can you do me a favour?" I asked wearily.

He flashed me a smile. "You're racking and stacking them today."

I just gave him a blank stare. "Yes or no, Tank?"

"Yes. No question about it."

"I need you to take my checks to Connie, get them exchanged for cash. Then I need you to go and buy one Turtle Cheesecake for Lula and one Red Velvet Cheesecake for Connie. You need to give it to them personally. They'll know what they're for. Then I need you to deliver the rest of the money to my Landlord. Is that too much?"

He wrapped his large arm around my shoulders and gave me a gentle squeeze. "It's no problem."

I rattled off my landlord's address and gave him the cheesecake store I knew baked delicious products. I'd have to call my landlord and give him the heads up before Tank arrived.

"This how you're getting the ladies to keep their mouths shut?" Tank wondered, taking the checks off of me for Loralie and Butch.

"Maybe."

"Good plan, Bomber. See you later."

"Thanks heaps, Tank! I owe you." I shouted over my shoulder at him. The apartment door swung shut after he gave me a wave.

"Alright, Steph. I'm going to clean your wounds; it's going to hurt like a bitch. You know the drill," Bobby said as he opened up his kit and sat next to me on the couch.

After ten minutes of Bobby cleaning the scratches on my neck, poking and prodding my nose and left cheek, and dressing my neck wound, he sat back. "Good news is, I don't think your nose is broken." He snapped off his gloves and walked into my kitchen. He came back with a bag of frozen vegetables I didn't even know I had.

"And the bad news?" I wondered.

He placed the bag over my nose and cheek. "The bad news is you'll probably still have two black eyes, a swollen nose and a swollen cheek tomorrow."

I groaned.

"Just keep icing it. It might keep the swelling and bruising down."

"Great," I muttered.

"Now show me this tat," he said.

At this point, I was so over the day I held the make shift icepack on my face with one hand, and reached down to lift my shirt up with the other.

Bobby was silent for a long minute. "Looks good. No sign of infection yet. Seems to be healing correctly. You keep a good eye on it, and if you think something's not right, just give me a call and I'll come take a look. Okay, Steph?"

I sat forward and removed my icepack. "Thanks, Bobby. I really appreciate all this. Please keep my tattoo to yourself," I begged.

"Don't sweat it, Steph. I'll see myself out." He leant forward, smacked a kiss to my forehead, gathered his things and was gone.

I grabbed my cell phone and placed the call to my landlord before I forgot. _He didn't need to have a heart attack today. _

* * *

_TBC..._


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

**A/N: **The whole story has been written from Stephanie's point of view. So... you'll all just have to imagine what Ranger is thinking (just like Stephanie does) :D

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

Sunday morning, I walked into the Bond's Office, shoulders slumped, grim faced. _At least I wasn't hung over any more though. _I'd spent Saturday mostly wallowing in my apartment, dwelling on my conversation with Ranger and recouping from my injuries sustained in the bounty hunter line of duty. I'd checked in with Connie yesterday morning over the phone to see if I had any new skips. I didn't. _Hopefully today Connie had some good news for me. _I dropped my pocket book down on Connie's desk with a loud _thump_. She glanced up at me from her nails that she was filing and raised an eyebrow.

"I need a lot of money, fast."

"Yeah, and maybe also a mirror. Have you seen yourself today?"

"I know my face is a little scary. C'mon, Connie, help me out."

She sat her nail file down on her desk and started flicking through the stack of files there that were probably for Rangeman. "What do you need the money for?"

"Rent."

"When's it due?"

"Tuesday."

"That's two days away."

"Yep."

"You need to make eleven hundred dollars by Tuesday?"

"I've called my landlord, and paid two hundred and seventy already. He's given me a five day grace period from Tuesday, and then he'll start adding on late fees. I'm sure it won't be long after that I get an eviction notice."

"He sounds reasonable."

"He'd have to be to deal with all the senior citizens in my building. But I don't want to push my luck. If there is any possibility I can get it paid on time, I want it paid on time."

"For sure. But maybe you can wait a few days for some new skips to come in."

"Connie!" I dropped down into her visitor chair and scowled at her irritably.

"Alright, alright. I was just messing with you. You know I got your back, Steph. I just wanted the goss. Thanks for the cheesecake, by the way. I enjoyed every darn mouthful."

I sighed as she unlocked her filing cabinet and pulled out a stack of files. _My rental woes would be all over the Burg in no time flat. And I didn't even have any cheesecake of my own to commiserate with. At least I could hope she'd keep quiet about my tat._

Connie flipped through the files and paused on the fourth one. "Okay, got a new one in this morning that you should be able to handle. Isaac Turner. He was caught driving a vehicle while intoxicated and he slammed into a car full of people. A kid and an adult taken to hospital with broken bones, the other adult had a head injury, and two kids were taken to hospital with lacerations and contusions. Booked with third degree aggravated assault with auto."

"Wow, he sounds like _fun_."

"Priors include carjacking, theft, DWI, resisting arrest and unlawful possession of weapons," Connie rattled off.

I groaned loudly and dropped my forehead down onto her desk. "He sounds a little out of my league. Are none of the other ones easier?"

"You need the money, dontcha?"

"Yeah."

"This one _is _the easiest. You call one of those fine Rangemen and get them to ride along. You can afford to split the money fifty-fifty."

"How much is the bond, Connie?"

"Fifteen grand."

"Whoa. Okay. I can do this. Today and tomorrow to catch one nasty criminal. Sure. No problem."

"You got this, Steph. Go home, get your gun, stun gun, Taser, mace, and handcuffs then go get this son of a bitch."

I gave a little nod. "Right."

"If you hurry you're ass up, he might still be drunk or hung over from last night."

"Good idea. Thanks Connie!"

"Don't mention it."

I scooped up the file and walked out of the office. I sat in my car for a good ten minutes before I put my car in gear and followed Connie's advice. My pocket book was bulging with all my bounty hunter paraphernalia, but I was feeling more confident. _Now I just needed to enlist the help of a Merry Man._

"Talk."

"Hi, Tank."

"Bombshell."

"I could use a hand with a skip today."

"You need help, you call Ranger." He disconnected and I stared dumbfounded at my phone.

I did what any woman would do, I hit redial.

"You in immediate danger?" Tank asked on the first ring.

"No."

"Call Ranger." The dial tone echoed in my ear _again_.

I hit redial.

"Stephanie, what part of _call Ranger_ did you not get?"

"The why."

"Why? Because you're both stubborn pains in my ass. Call him, now." Dial tone. _Damn it. _

I glared at my phone for thirty seconds. I knew I really needed help with this skip. He sounded too difficult for me to handle alone. _I'd just have to suck it up, pull on my big girl panties and call Ranger. It was a professional call. Strictly business. I'd just be courteous and polite and behave like the adult I sometimes was. Okay. _I manually dialled Ranger's number, still trying to put off the inevitable.

"Steph."

_Not Babe. Damn. _"Ranger."

Silence. I fidgeted nervously in the driver's seat. I knew just what look he'd be giving me if we were face to face right now. _It was not a fun look._

"You called me, Babe."

"Yep. I did. I, uh, need some help."

Silence. _Great._ I swallowed down the lump of anxiety that was building in my chest.

"Help."

"Yes please, if I could just borrow one of your men for the day. I'll split the bond with them fifty-fifty. Even if we don't catch the skip today. Seven fifty for a day's work isn't bad, right?" I babbled nervously.

"Babe."

I fidgeted some more. _God, this sucked. Awkwardness sucked. At least I still got a 'Babe'. Damn but I liked being good friends (or whatever we usually were) with Ranger. Our sort of fight had ruined everything._ "Please, Ranger."

"Babe," he said gently, his voice softening dramatically, "you need help, you come to me. No matter what."

"But –"

"No matter what, Babe. Where can Tank pick you up?"

Relief seeped through my body. _We'd be okay. _"My apartment."

"Be safe, Babe." I sighed as he disconnected. _Damn._

I climbed back out of my car and trudged inside my building. I'd wait for Tank in my apartment. I was just getting settled on my couch with Ghostbusters when there was a knock on the door. _Well, more like two quick pounds. Guess that was my cue. _I checked the peep-hole just to be safe. Tank stood there, in my hallway, arms crossed across his chest menacingly. _Alrighty then._

Before I'd even opened the door a crack, Tank was inside. "You and Ranger sort your shit out?"

"Uh, not really. Maybe?"

"_Maybe_."

"Yeah, maybe we'll be okay… eventually."

Tank folded his arms back across his chest and stared at me unblinkingly_. Oh boy._ Then he flashed a grin and unfolded his arms. "Okay. Let's go."

I rolled my eyes, scooped up my pocketbook. _Jerk._ Tank headed out the door, and I followed him out. He secured my apartment and escorted me down the stairs, _yes, the stairs_, to his idling Yukon. Tank would be one of the few people in Trenton that could leave a car idling and it wouldn't get stolen. If I tried that trick, my car would be gone before I'd even taken one step away from it. _Some people just walked in the light._

I hauled myself into the passenger's side and grabbed the file out of my bag. Tank drove out of the lot and we were on our way. "What do we got, Bombshell?"

"Isaac Turner, DWI and crashed into a car and hurt the family inside. A few priors. Bond is set at fifteen grand."

"Address?"

"Calhorn Street."

Tank gave me a long side-ways look. Calhorn was just as bad, if not worse than Stark Street.

"That's why I called in for backup."

"Someone finally knock some sense into you?"

It was my turn then to give Tank a steely glance. _Was he having a dig at me about yesterday?_

"Proud of you for putting your pride aside."

"Oh. Well thanks. I sort of _did_ learn my lesson after yesterday."

Tank just nodded slowly. A few minutes in comfortable silence passed. "Frequent haunts?"

"Huh? Oh!" I said, shaking my head and glancing back through the file. "Okay, here we go. Scruples Bar, XXXV Tavern, and Bar 69 are his favourite, uh, night time entertainment venues. He works as a mechanic at Nick's Auto Repairs on Kelsey Avenue, I assume when he's sober and not in jail."

"We'll drive by the house. Get a feel. If no-one's home, we drop into the Mechanic's. No luck, then we start visiting dive bars."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Your tat healing okay?"

"Yep."

"Sketch giving you any problems?"

"I was supposed to go back to see him today, but I rescheduled for tomorrow."

"He gives you a hard time, call me."

"Oh, not Ranger this time?" I sassed.

"Thought you didn't want him to find out about the tat?"

"I don't! You wouldn't help me earlier unless I called Ranger," I explained exasperatedly.

"Yeah, and now you talked to him and you're starting to sort your shit out."

"Men!"

"Should just show him your tat, Steph. Then he'll know exactly where you're at and there won't be anything to sort out."

"I don't want him to know where I'm at! That's the whole problem Tank, my tattoo says too much."

"Says what you're too scared to actually say."

"Yeah, well. Drunk Stephanie is a hell of a lot braver than stone cold sober Stephanie."

"Probably more fun, too."

"Hey!"

A wide grin stretched over Tank's face. _He was teasing me!_

"Oh, you think you're so funny."

Tank just grinned some more.

I sighed while simultaneously rolling my eyes. _That took some skill, you know._

"Steph, you ever consider Ranger feels the same way you feel about him?"

"Nope."

Tank raised a sceptical eyebrow in my direction. "You haven't?"

"Thinking about it might get my hopes up. I can't do that to myself, Tank."

"Alright, I'll drop it for today. What number's Turner's house?"

I swung my gaze out the window and realised we'd just turned on to Calhorn Street. _Damn, that trip went quick._ "Two oh eight. Should be a detached two story house."

Tank cruised down the street slowly, his head swinging back and forth as he scanned both sides of the street. We passed the house. No lights on. No car parked out front. It was only quarter to ten on a Sunday. He should still be in bed.

Tank pulled over half a block up and turned the engine off. "How you wanna play it?"

I turned around in my seat and glanced back at Turner's house. He had a low chain link fence around the front half of the yard; and a taller wooden fence round the back half. "Do you think someone will call the cops if they see us lurking around his house?"

Tank shot me a look of disbelief. "Does this look like the kind of neighbourhood where people call the cops?"

"No."

"We could have a shootout with twenty gang members and no one would call the cops."

"Okay, we're good to go then. I'll knock on the front door, you cover the back. If there's no answer, we could take a quick look inside?"

"You asking if my lock picking skills are up to scratch?"

"Maybe."

Tank shook his head slightly and jumped out of his vehicle. I shrugged and did the same. We met at the bonnet.

"You got you're gear with you?" Tank wondered.

I opened my pocket book and let him look inside. He nodded, looking just a tad impressed. I couldn't help it; I preened a little.

"Shove you gun at your back, and hook your hand cuffs to your belt," Tank ordered.

My shoulders slumped but I did what he said. We moved up the street quickly. The front gate on the fence screeched as I pushed it open. I froze and glanced up at the house. No movement. I looked back at Tank. He inclined his head slightly, encouraging me to keep moving. I stepped through and waited on the front path as Tank slunk around the back.

The yard was a mess. There were a few different stacks of tyres, some stacks of tyre rims, three 55 gallon drums in a line, a rusty car that was half disassembled, and a whole heap of other junk. Where there was grass, it grew in small clumps with tall weeds sticking out. At least three quarters of the yard was bare dirt. Towards the back I could see a broken bathtub, a roll of barbed wire, and what looked like a washing machine.

I counted silently to thirty, figuring that would give Tank enough time to get into place. I was raising my hand to knock on the door when someone landed heavily on top of me.

* * *

_TBC..._


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Violence, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, **Attempted Sexual Assault**, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

I hit the ground hard and had the wind knocked right out of me. Then I heard gunfire and Tank yelling at me to move. Adrenaline flooded my system, my heart raced, blood pounded in my ears, my palms grew clammy, and every nerve in my body became alert. Even the world seemed brighter and more defined. Tank lifted off of me and started army crawling over to the junk in the yard. I followed closely behind, trying to keep my head down and out of the firing line.

We made it behind the large drums in one piece. Tank started opening fire. People came crawling out of the house in all directions. I raised my gun and let it rip, hoping I was deterring them from coming too close to us.

"Fuck." Tank had finished two clips and was loading his third. He only had one more clip after that. I ducked back down and glared at Tank.

"Jesus Tank, you just had to test fate! We're_ in_ a freaking shoot-out with twenty gang members!"

"Easy, Bomber. You're file say what gang he's affiliated with?"

"No! There was _no_ mention of _any_ gang relations."

"We need to fall back."

_Thank you Captain Obvious. _"How?"

Tank fell silent, assessing our surroundings. Suddenly the gun fire stopped. I held my breath and turned to face Tank with wide eyes.

"Come out, amigo! I want a taste of that _chica_ you're with," said a man with a strong Spanish accent.

It was Tank's turn to turn to me with wide eyes. _Uh oh. _"Steph, what did you say you're skips name was?"

"Isaac Turner," I whispered.

"Shit, that ain't Isaac Turner. That's Zacarias Talavera. Turner must be his new alias. Fuck." Tank looked worried. _That was not a good sign. Nothing worried Tank._

"Where's you're panic button?" Tank asked with a hushed tone.

As quietly as I could, I dumped out the contents of my bag and started frantically searching for my panic button. _Lipstick, pen, wallet, air freshener spray, sunglasses, stun gun, tissue pack, antibacterial hand sanitizer, extra clip. Hey!_ I shoved the clip into my pocket. _That would definitely come in handy. Man, was I glad I packed that this morning._

Tank grabbed my phone out of the mess and turned in on silent. Then he started texting away on both mine and his phone. I finally found the panic button and pressed it. Then I pressed it a few more times for good measure. _Just to be sure._

"Come out, come out wherever you are, _cazarrecompensas escoria_."

Tank snorted quietly and shook his head. He shoved his phone back in his pocket and handed mine back to me. I shoved it into my bra for safe keeping and tried to get everything back into my bag.

"What is funny about this situation Tank?" I hissed.

"That asshole just called us bounty hunter scum. Weak insult. Coulda done better."

I just stared at Tank. _He was joking right? This wasn't really the time or place to dissect someone's insult technique. Especially not someone who was not a friendly!_

"Estefanía? Tank? Where are you hiding?" Turner, I mean Talavera taunted.

_Shit. Double shit. He sounded close. And why the hell, how the hell, did he know our names?_

"I'm going to make you mine, Estefanía. That'll teach fucking Mañoso not to mess with me."

I heard him spit on the ground. _Yuck._

Tank's face tightened, and he got a determined look in his eye. _Uh oh. _I swung my bag over my shoulder. _Shit was about to go down_. I pressed back against the drums and kept my breathing as quiet as possible. Tank slowly got into a crouch, held up a hand as if to say, _wait here_, and moved silently away from me.

_Oh hell no. He did not just leave me here? Where did he think he was going?! _I slowly crawled to the end of the last drum and looked around. The yard was crawling with gang members. There was no sign of Tank. I grabbed my stun gun in my left hand, my gun in my right and waited in a sort of crouched running stance. _I needed to be ready to move. I needed some kind of plan. Shooting my way out didn't sound like it was going to be effective_. I glanced at the fence. _I could jump the lower fence that stretched around the front and halfway around the side. Problem was, if I could jump it, so could the men. Damn, how far away was our back up?_

I pulled out my phone and went to the recent texts. The last one was from Ranger. _'Get her out of there at any cost_.' I gulped. This wasn't my phone. This was Tank's phone._ I guess that's what happened when everyone had the same smartphone. 'At any cost_.' _What the hell did that mean? Would Tank sacrifice himself? Is that what he was doing right now? Shit. I couldn't let that happen. _

I heard a commotion towards the back of the house and quickly darted my glance there. There were two men down on the ground. The other gang members quickly swarmed the backyard.

_Damn it, Tank_, I thought, hopefully loud enough for him to hear, _you better be alright_.

I heard a foot scuff directly to my right. "Hello _puta_," the voice said from above me.

I didn't hesitate. I shot upwards, ramming my head under his chin and swung the stun gun into his neck hard. He went down instantly. _Too bad he crashed into the drums as he did so._ Everyone in the yard froze and as one, slowly turned to stare at me. A wide grin stretched across Turner's, I mean Talavera's face.

_Shiiiiiiiit. _I ducked back down and hustled towards the other end of the drums, moving around the end. I could hear the men making their way back towards me. I had three bullets left in my gun, and a full clip. It would take me probably ten seconds to change my clip. That still didn't leave me enough bullets to shoot every man in the yard.

"I'm going to fuck you up in ways you can't even imagine_, chica_," Talavera laughed, sending shivers down my spine.

_Holy cow. There was no way in hell I was letting him touch me. Where the hell was the cavalry? _I stuck my gun around the edge of the drum and my head followed. I took a deep breath. _This was a life or death situation. I chose life._ I pulled the trigger and shot the closest man in the knee. He went down hard. The rest of the men froze. Then I heard a shot from the back of the yard and watched another man fall. _Tank_. _He was okay. Well, at least okay enough to still be able to fire his weapon. _

The gang members quickly scattered around the yard, drawing their guns, trying to cover both me and Tank. Tank shot another man and bullets started flying in all directions. Talavera was still heading directly for me. I squeezed the trigger again, hitting him in the lower leg. He didn't slow down. _Oh fuck._ I fired again, hit him in the opposite thigh. He flinched, but kept moving. _And I was out of bullets. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!_ I started panicking as I tried to remove my clip and force the new one in. I couldn't get it; my hands were shaking so badly. My heart was pounding in my ears erratically. I dropped my gun and switched my stun gun to my right hand. But it was too late.

Talavera roughly grabbed my hair with one hand, pulling me to my feet. With the other he practically crushed my wrist, forcing me to drop the stun gun. I cried out and brought my other hand up to his face, scratching at him, trying to gouge his eyes out, anything. When that didn't work, I balled my hand up into a fist and started swinging. Talavera grabbed my fist and twisted my arm. I heard a sickening pop, felt a rush of pain, cried out and struggled against his hold, but just ended up hurting myself more. He grabbed both of my wrists with his one hand. His free hand began roughly groping me. I started to hyperventilate as his hand closed tightly around my right breast. My knee came up automatically into his groin as hard as I could manage. He grunted but other than that, didn't react. _What the fuck was wrong with this guy?_

He roughly pulled my body into his and stared at me with empty eyes. _Oh God._ "¡_No me jodas_! You're going to pay for that," he murmured softly.

His words sent whole body shivers down my spine. _He was fucking crazy._ I struggled even more doggedly against his grip. _I had to get away!_

I heard the cock of a gun and blinked when it entered my peripheral vision, pressed directly against Talavera's temple.

"Enough." Ranger's voice was barely audible, but silence fell throughout the yard. The gang members who were still standing dropped their guns and their hands shot into the air. "Release her."

Talavera shoved me out of his grip. I slammed back into Ranger's chest. He didn't even stumble. His arm wrapped around my hips, his hand spread wide over my belly, as held me to him securely.

"On your knees."

Talavera spat on the ground between us and gave me a sick grin.

"On your knees," Ranger repeated calmly.

I waited with bated breath, trying to take stock of myself and my surroundings. Nothing seemed to be broken, but I'd sure have a few more bruises tomorrow. I didn't dare move an inch, but in my peripheral vision I could see Merry Men infiltrating the yard, guns held high as they started cuffing gang members.

The smile slowly fell off of Talavera's face. I had no idea what the hell Ranger was doing behind me but Talavera finally dropped down to his knees and placed his hands on his head. I heard police sirens in the distance and knew they were on their way to us. Tank came up behind Talavera, looking none the worse for wear, and slapped a pair of cuffs on him. Bobby came up next to him and attached a set of leg shackles. Both men grabbed Talavera under the armpits and hauled him off. I didn't breathe deeply until he was far, far out of sight.

Ranger slowly turned me to face him. His eyes were darker than normal, his jaw was tight, and there were tiny little lines around his eyes. He studied me carefully for a long minute before tipping my chin upwards and claiming my lips in a possessive kiss. A whimper of plea escaped my lips as he pulled away. His eyes were dark now for a different reason.

"I thought you were backing away from me... after our fight," I murmured, my eyes never leaving his.

"Not backing away. Fell back to regroup. I'm done regrouping." His head dipped down and his lips brushed mine softly once, twice and a third time that lingered. "Wait in my car, Babe." _An order not a question._

I blinked a few times and slowly came back down to earth. I glanced around and saw gang members still getting cuffed and escorted to the curb. The cops were just about on us. I pushed away from Ranger's warmth, gave him a small nod and stepped past him. My whole body started shaking and my vision dimmed. The aftermath of the adrenaline rush. Lester was suddenly by my side, an arm around my waist. I soaked in his warmth and welcomed his steadying support.

"You did good, Beautiful," Lester murmured, walking me directly towards Ranger's futuristic SUV that was idling at the curb.

It looked even more out of place on Calhorn Street. Ranger was another one of those few people that could leave their car idling and expect it to still be there when he came back, even on Calhorn Street. It probably didn't hurt that three quarters of the population wouldn't have known what to do with the ultra-modern Mercedes. _I sure as hell didn't._

Lester helped me up into the passenger seat and shut the door. Then he took one step away from the car, back facing me, and folded his arms against his chest. Lester was officially on bodyguard duty. I sighed and slouched down in the seat enjoying the air-conditioned bliss. I spent a few minutes watching out of the window as the police arrived and started racking and stacking gang members. Morelli followed shortly after and stomped directly over to Ranger, hands on hips. They stood facing each other not saying anything. I pressed against the glass, trying to get a better look. Neither of them moved their lips, but they both turned as one to look at Ranger's car.

Morelli started away from Ranger immediately. Ranger shook his head slightly behind Morelli's back. When Morelli made it to Lester, Lester shot his hand out against Morelli's chest and shook his head. Morelli wasn't getting anywhere near me. _At least not today._ Joe looked like he was thinking about pulling out the cop card for about a second. Then he nodded his head and moved off. I felt my body relax instantly – I didn't even realise I'd tensed up. _I wasn't up for dealing with Joe._

As if hearing my thoughts, Lester turned towards the car slightly and sent a wink in my direction. I knew he couldn't see me, with the ridiculously dark tinting on Ranger's car windows, but he made me smile none the less.

I turned my gaze away from the window and to the sleek interior of the car. I was too afraid to actually touch anything. There were buttons and dials and screens. I was fascinated. I'd just worked up the courage to press a dial I thought would turn on the radio when the door opened.

* * *

_TBC..._


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Violence, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault** and related themes**, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

I've made a word press site for images and such that inspired this story. You can find the link on my profile page.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

Bobby jumped behind the wheel and I had to fight to keep the disappointment off my face.

"I know, Bomber. Boss man wants me to take a look over you. He and Tank need to stay back to deal with the paperwork."

"You mean to clean up my mess," I said sulkily.

"Hey now Beautiful, this wasn't your fault," Lester argued as he jumped into the back seat behind me.

I just rolled my eyes.

Bobby just sat behind the wheel, _which, by the way wasn't circular, but merely three quarters of a circle with hand grips on either side,_ muttering for a moment before he figured out how to put the car in gear. _Glad I wasn't the only one._ We slowly eased away from the curb and headed quickly out of the neighbourhood.

"So Steph, let's talk about your tat," Lester said, grinning lasciviously into the drivers centre mirror.

I glared at Bobby. "You told him!" I accused.

"Sorry Steph, he snuck up on me and Tank."

"He _snuck_ up on you?! No-one sneaks up on you _or_ Tank!"

"What can I say, Beautiful? I'm good, I'm real good."

"Yeah. Modest too."

"In all seriousness, Beautiful. I haven't told anyone. I've only discussed it with Bobby and Tank. Now, if you don't show me that might change."

"Lester," I groaned.

"That's the deal, take it or leave it."

"Fine, but just a quick look, no touching, no photos."

"Deal."

"I'm so going to live to regret this." I frowned as we pulled to a stop. Then I sucked in a breath. We were at Rangeman, waiting for the heavy iron gate that led into the parking garage to open so we could go in. _Damn. Double Damn. Why here? _"What are we doing here, Bobby?"

"Boss's orders, Steph."

"We could have just as easily done this at my apartment!"

"Yep. Boss man wanted you in his, though."

Bobby pulled into the garage and took the spot closest to the elevator. I took off my seat belt and jumped out of the car. Lester was barely half a step behind me. He was probably expecting me to run. I'd thought about it for half a second. Then my body had chosen to remind me what I'd been through today, and Friday. _There was no way I was running anywhere on my jelly legs._

Lester took my arm and guided me to the elevator, Bobby not far behind us. We made our way directly up to seven.

"I'm not even really hurt anyway," I muttered as Bobby opened Ranger's apartment.

"B –" Bobby began.

"Boss's orders, I get it Bobby," I said pitifully, collapsing down on the couch with a groan.

"C'mon Steph, I know you're injured. Your adrenalin just probably hasn't worn off yet. Let's take a look," Bobby said, sitting down on the coffee table to face me.

I stuck out my right wrist for his inspection. I knew it would at least be bruised from where Talavera had grabbed it; I just hoped it wasn't anything worse. Bobby poked, prodded and rotated my wrist. He did a lot of frowning while he was doing that. Then he looked up at Lester. "Need you to run down and grab my kit and an ice pack."

Lester nodded and jumped up quickly.

Bobby finally made eye contact with me. And stared. And stared.

"What, Bobby?"

"Okay, while Lester's gone, let's look at the rest of you."

"What are you talking about, Bobby?"

"That bastard assaulted you. You're going to press charges."

"Bobby."

"Shirt off Steph, let me see."

I shifted uncomfortably. _Bobby was about to see me topless. I was not comfortable with that. At all. _

He sighed. "Steph, we either do this here, or I take you down to the police station and someone does it there."

I bit my bottom lip and considered my options. "What exactly do you need to do?"

"Take pictures for evidence, see if your injuries need treatment."

I thought about that. "Okay, how about I go into the bathroom, take the pictures myself, then you can look at them?"

Bobby stared at me. "How about you just take your shirt off, leave your bra on and let me inspect those areas first, then you can take photos of your, uh, sensitive areas? Deal?"

"That's fair," I agreed.

"Let's do it then."

I slowly pulled my shirt off, being careful not to jolt my body more than necessary.

"Jesus Christ, Steph."

"What?!" I glanced down at myself quickly, trying to figure out what was wrong. I didn't see any blood or wounds.

"Your fucking left shoulder is dislocated. Why didn't you tell me?"

I paused and started actually cataloguing where my pain was coming from. _Oh. Yep, my shoulder was hurting like a bitch, my wrist ached, my scalp ached, and my right breast and right butt cheek felt bruised. Damn. And Bobby was right; I could now tell my adrenaline had nearly finished wearing off. _

Bobby leant closer to me and poked and prodded my shoulder. Then he stood up. "Okay, Steph. I want you to lay down on the coffee table with your left shoulder and arm hanging over the edge."

I stood up on my wobbly legs and sat down on the coffee table, getting into position.

"I'm going to put your shoulder back into place."

I nodded and closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths. Bobby got a tight grip on my forearm and slowly started pulling my arm away from my body. I felt rather than heard my shoulder pop back into place, the relief was almost immediate. _Huh, and to think I hadn't really even felt it before._

"Damn, what'd I miss?" Lester asked.

I opened my eyes and stared at an upside down version of Lester. "Dislocated shoulder," I muttered.

"Good thing I brought a few icepacks up with me then." Lester placed an icepack, covered in what seemed like a tea towel, on my shoulder. Another one was placed around my wrist and taped on securely. _The cool relief was wonderful._

"Now, let's check out this tat." Lester's thigh brushed against me as he sat down on the coffee table next to me. I heard the coffee table groan slightly and hoped it would hold both of our weight. "It's nice, Beautiful," Lester murmured, his finger tracing around it lightly, sending pleasant shivers up my spine. "You should show the Boss."

My shivers of pleasure stopped. I opened my eyes and glared at Lester. "What is it with you guys? You can't tell anyone Lester, especially not Ranger!"

"I didn't say I would. I said _you_ should."

I huffed and would have folded my arms across my chest if I didn't have a sore wrist and shoulder.

Bobby opened his medical box and pulled out a Fingernail and Fingertip Swabbing Collection kit. He took a few photos of my hands and nails and then swabbed them, before sealing the evidence away.

I watched resignedly as he pulled out a bottle of pills.

"We'll leave the ice on for a good twenty minutes, then I'll strap your wrist," Bobby said, handing me two pills and a bottle of water.

I eased up into a sitting position, Lester helping me by holding my icepack on my shoulder in place. I downed the pain killers in one swallow. "What's wrong with my wrist?"

"Minor sprain, you've got bruising, swelling and it's warm. I want you to try and rest for forty eight hours."

I snorted.

"Stephanie. It's important that you rest it."

_Uh oh, use of my full name! _"I'll try to take it easy," I said. _That was as far as I was willing to commit._

Bobby rolled his eyes, but gave me a grin. It slowly faded until he started the staring at me thing again. I groaned and just held out my hand carefully. Bobby placed the digital camera in it. I glared at the object.

"Where ever he touched you or hurt you, you photograph, understand?" Bobby asked quietly.

"Yeah, let's just get this over with."

Lester helped me to my feet and walked me to the bathroom, giving me a kiss on the forehead as he left. I melted a little inside. The guys really took good care of me. I closed the bathroom door and dropped my shoulder icepack onto the sink. _Okay Steph, let's just get it done._ I stepped out of the rest of my clothing and stared at my body. I started with my wrist and shoulder and then took stock. My right breast had definite finger marks imprinted on it. I took a snap. I turned my backside to the mirror and glanced over my shoulder. I couldn't see any bruising. _Must be the extra bit of cushioning I had there that protected me._ I had a quick glance over the rest of my body. None of the other bruises had anything to do with Talavera. I redressed and left the bathroom, flopping down on the couch between Lester and Bobby.

"Where's your icepack?" Lester wondered as I handed Bobby the camera.

"Dang it. On the sink." I made a move to get up when Lester placed a hand on my arm.

"I'll get it."

I blew out a frustrated breath and relaxed into the cushions. I startled as I heard a crunching sound to my right. Bobby had crushed the camera with his hand. He got to his feet and paced around the room.

"Didn't like what he saw?" Lester wondered as he sat back down on my left and adjusted the icepack.

"Too be fair, I didn't either," I said quietly. I jumped as Bobby threw the camera into the wall, breaking it even further.

"Feel better now?" Lester asked Bobby.

Bobby glared at Lester and shrugged.

"I'm not re-taking those photos, Bobby. You better recover the SD card from that mess," I warned lightly.

He hunkered down and eventually managed to pull out the card. Then he made his way back over to the couch and sat down heavily. "No man has any right to touch a woman without her permission."

"Bobby, it's okay. I'm fine."

"It is not fucking okay. You couldn't even defend yourself against him!"

"I tried, Bobby! I shot him, _twice_. I kneed him in the groin. He was not on the same planet, he was fucking crazy!" I argued.

"Hey, take it easy guys. We'll ask the boss if we can go over some self-defence moves with Steph when she's up to it. Sound okay, Beautiful?"

I glowered, but nodded reluctantly.

"Okay." Lester grabbed for the TV remote. I glanced from between him and Bobby. _If we were done, I could go home now, right?_

"Now what do we do?" I asked.

"We wait," Lester replied.

"Wait?"

"Yep."

"For what?"

"Boss's all clear," Bobby muttered.

"Are you shitting me?"

"Steph, once Talavera and his gang are locked up, the cops have interviewed Tank and Ranger, and Ranger is certain Talavera won't be able to get at you, you can leave. No doubt Ranger will also want to set the time for when the cops interview you. Til then, you're on lock down. You get me?"

"Yeah, I get you, Lester."

"Good, now we'll just relax with some TV until Ranger calls."

"Okay." I tilted my head back but then shot back forward. "Don't let me forget, I've got Tank's phone. We need to switch. Oh, and I need the money for the skip because my rent's due Tuesday," I spat out swiftly.

"I said relax, Beautiful." Lester drew me tight against his body and slouched into the couch. I followed suit.

*R&S*

Bobby, Lester and I sat on Ranger's couch, channel surfing for a good hour or more. _Well, Lester was channel surfing, I was napping on and off, _before Bobby's phone rang.

"Yo. Yep. No. No. No. Okay." Bobby tucked his phone back away. "Boss says you'll be safe if you want to go. You need a lift?"

I kinda felt disappointed he didn't want me to hang around. _Didn't we have things to discuss?_ _Like that kiss? Or the 'I'm done re-grouping comment'? But that would be typical of Ranger, always saying and doing things and then not explaining himself…_

"Please," I responded.

"I'll take her," Lester offered.

"Cool." Bobby and Lester did a complicated handshake and gave each other a slap on the back. "Catch you later, Steph! Keep icing your injuries every couple hours and keep that wrist strapped. And rest!" Bobby hollered on his way out of the apartment.

"Betcha," I mumbled to the empty doorway. "I'll just use the bathroom first, okay?"

"I'll be here," Lester said, pulling out his phone and making a call.

When I returned from the bathroom, Lester was only just hanging up. "Tank is going to meet us at your apartment so you can swap your phones and get your money."

"Awesome."

The ride back to my apartment was quick. Tank was already waiting in the car park for us when we pulled up.

"You alright, Steph?" Tank asked, glancing over my wrist and shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Here's your phone," I said, fishing the phone out of my bag.

"We gotta talk about that stunt you pulled." Tank grabbed my arm and directed me inside my building. Lester followed behind us_. Jeez. Another Merry Man heart to heart today?_

"What stunt?"

"The trying to draw fire away from me, stunt."

"But that's what you're supposed to do, cover your partner's back."

"_I_ was supposed to be drawing the fire so you could get away!"

"Then how were _you_ supposed to get away?"

Tank looked stumped for a second. "That's not the point."

"It's _totally_ the point, Tank. We both have to have each other's back. If you're going to keep trying that shit, I won't be calling for backup again!"

"Steph."

"I mean it, Tank. I don't call you guys so you can sacrifice yourselves for me. I call you guys for _help_."

"Christ, woman," Tank muttered, grabbing his phone out of my hand and shoving my phone into my pocket book.

I just rolled my eyes in response.

"I'll walk her up," Tank said, cutting his eyes to Lester.

"Catch ya later, Beautiful."

"Bye, Lester."

Tank guided me to the elevator, _thank God_, and we were soon entering my apartment. Tank did the usual walkthrough check for bad guys and intruders. The coast was clear.

"Tank, did today feel… off to you?" I said, dropping my bag on the kitchen table and dumping the two icepacks in my freezer. _I'd need them later for sure._

"Felt like a set up. He knew we were coming," Tank agreed.

"He knew our _names_, Tank."

"I've had run-ins with Talavera before. Him knowing _your_ name in zeroing in on you is the real problem."

"But he's in jail now, right?"

"Yeah, let's just hope he stays there."

A shiver raced down my spine. _I'd hope like hell. _"Lester said you had my cut of the money for me?"

"Ranger banked your check for you. He took care of your rent."

I froze in my place. "He what?" I asked quietly.

"You heard."

"I can't believe this!"

"Why?"

"This isn't the first time my rent's been late, Tank. Nor will it be the last! The nerve of him to just, just –,"

"Look out for you, take care of you, help you out whenever you need it?" Tank interjected.

That deflated me pretty quickly. "Did you at least take your cut out?"

"Don't need your money, Steph."

"Tank!"

"Ranger pays me more than enough, without adding in hazard pay."

"Tank, how much money would it have cost Ranger and Rangeman to clean up today's mess? Hundreds if not thousands of dollars! If you didn't want the money, you could at least have had it made out to Rangeman," I said heatedly. _God, I hated being a burden. _

"You think Ranger would've taken your money?"

"Tank, I didn't even take down my skip! I don't really deserve _any_ portion of the skip money. It's just not right."

"When Ranger asks for help, you help him?"

"What? Yeah, always."

"Always. No questions asked."

"Well no, sometimes I ask questions." _Okay, I asked a lot of questions, so sue me._

"You help him out with the Ramos mess?"

"Yes, but –"

"You help him out with the Scrog mess?"

"Yeah, but Tank – "

"You do distractions when he needs them?"

"Yes."

"You do searches when he needs them?"

"Tank! I get it. What's the point you're making?"

"You bleed money for him when you help him out?"

"Not usually, but I don't own a million or multi-million dollar, or however much Rangeman is worth, company."

"Don't matter. You help him out, he helps you out. That's fair. End of story."

"Tank."

"Ranger don't need your permission. He'll do what he likes, when he likes, on his own terms. He wanted your rent paid, he paid it. Ranger scheduled your interview with TPD so he can be there. He got your fridge stacked. Now you can rest for a day or two."

I dropped down into one of the kitchen chairs and held my head in my hands. _This was getting out of control. He gave me the protection of his name, help whenever I asked, a place to stay whenever I needed one, a car whenever I needed one, bodyguards, backup, training, employment when I was short on cash, and now this. Kissing me in front of gang members, the police, and his men. Paying my rent. Filling my fridge with food._ _I didn't want to think about it too hard, but I think our relationship was on the point of turning into something else. I wasn't sure what that something else was yet. I knew what I wanted it to be, but what I wanted would never happen._

"Okay, Tank. I'll rest for the next two days, but I'm supposed to go visit Sketch, and probably have dinner with my mother," I said softly.

"Steph, he's not telling you what to do. He's giving you the opportunity to at least be able to choose what you want to do. You didn't have the option of staying at home for the next two days 'cause your rent was due and you're out of cash for food. Now you have that option."

"It's overwhelming."

"What? That someone wanted to do something nice for you?"

I kept silent, but my answer was _yes_.

Tank stood up from his seat and moved towards the front door. "I'll tell you one thing though, Steph. Ranger sees you out of this building after the past couple days, you better have a damn good excuse 'cause he won't be happy."

With those parting words of warning, my front door clicked shut. Then the lock slid into place.

_Huh. Maybe I should re-schedule with Sketch, again, and avoid taking any of my mother's phone calls. That sounded like a good plan. _I opened my freezer again and nearly cried. It was stocked with Ben and Jerry's, what looked like frozen meals from Ella, and frozen cookie dough_. I was in pity party heaven._ I grabbed a tub of Peanut Brittle and took it to my bedroom. _I needed one hell of a nap._

* * *

_TBC..._


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Violence, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault and related themes, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

Loving all the reviews! We're about half-way through the story.

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Wednesday morning, three days after the Talavera mess, I bounced into the Bond's Office at eight thirty. I hadn't seen hide nor hair of Ranger the past few days, but he'd been in my apartment because he'd left me a note with the time and place to meet up for my interview at the cop shop. He usually didn't have any problems waking me up if I was asleep when he visited. But then again, trying to figure out Ranger was like trying to catch smoke. Connie glanced up at me from her nails and raised an eyebrow.

"You alright, Steph? Boys from Rangeman said Turner gave you a hard time. Report from TPD said he had two bullet wounds."

"Turner was an alias for Zac Talavera. That name ring any bells?" I asked, plopping down in the visitor chair.

"Shit! I'm sorry, Steph. I wouldn't have given that son of a bitch to you if I'd have known it was him!" She rummaged through her filing cabinet and pulled out two files, comparing them. When she flipped them around to face me, I nodded. Talavera looked a lot different to his Turner alias, similar, but different enough you wouldn't pick it unless you were looking hard. All of his other details were different too; date of birth, residence, bank details - everything. It would have been expensive to develop an alias as thorough as Turner – and how had he gotten around the fingerprinting issue at the TPD? _Why had he gone to so much trouble?_

"I know, Connie. It all worked out in the end I guess. Do you have anything new for me?" I wondered, glancing at the stack of files at her elbow as she folded the other two away.

"You up to it?" she wondered, staring pointedly at my bandaged wrist and then back up at the fading bruises on my face.

"Yep."

"Okay, I've got one repeat and a mid-range bond." She pulled my files out of her stack and set them on the corner closest to me. "You're out of bed early today," Connie remarked as she divided the remaining files into two stacks.

I studied the two stacks. As far as I knew, Vinnie only had Rangeman and myself looking for his skips at the moment. Joyce had taken off after bigger fish for a while. _So who was the second pile for?"_

"I have to be at the cop shop at nine with Ranger, we're meeting here. Who are those files for?"

"Rangeman," Connie answered too quickly.

"And?"

She hung her head. "Jeanne Ellen Burrows."

"What?" I whispered.

"All of the mid to high-range skips are now to go to her. You get the low to mid, Rangeman gets the high."

"And when did this happen?"

"Ranger came in a couple of days ago to meet with Vinnie. After he left, Vinnie told me how it was going to be from now on."

"Shit." I wasn't sure how I felt about Ranger coming in and deciding what skips I could and couldn't go after. I realised it was coming from a good place but it still didn't make me happy that my income was potentially reduced. Although, come to think of it, I rarely did mid to high bonds anyway, not that many came in compared to low range bonds. And maybe Ranger was trying to… I don't know, tempt me into working more at Rangeman? After facing Talavera, working at Rangeman seemed like a pretty good option. But then, was Ranger even offering that? But why would he cut my income and not help me out; that didn't seem fair. _Oh Plum, you could go around in circles about this for days. _Damn Ranger, why couldn't he just spell out why he did things?

"Yep."

"And Sebring is okay with it?" I wondered.

"Apparently Jeanne is going to give Les a cut of her finder's fee. Just so long as she doesn't start dropping the ball on his skips, he's fine with it."

The bell on the front door tinkled and both Connie and I swung around simultaneously. We both knew who it was before we'd even looked. _Shit like this just seemed to happen to me. Often. Surprise, surprise. It was Jeanne Ellen Burrows. _"Jeanne," I greeted as warmly as possible.

She still looked the same as the last time I'd seen her. Black leather pants, white t-shirt, cropped black leather jacket, black high heel boots, and a gun at her hip. _In other words, she was a smoking hot badass and knew it._

A tiny smirk appeared on her lips as she took in my appearance. Fading black eyes, light wash jeans, black Sabbath sleeveless t-shirt and a light burgundy brown bomber jacket matched with a pair of black shit kickers. I had my dark oversized shades at the ready to disguise my bruised face. I thought my outfit had looked kickass this morning when I'd dressed. _Now, not so much._

"Stephanie. Heard you had a run in with Talavera?" she asked with that stupid little smirk still on her face as she leant one hip against Connie's desk.

The door didn't tinkle, but I turned to stare at it when a shiver of desire shot down my body straight to my doo-dah. _Ranger._

"She found him and captured him in one day," Ranger said softly, stepping around Jeanne to get to me. When he did, he bent down and gently brushed his lips against mine. It sent a warm buzz through my body and a jolt straight to my heart. My first thought was, _take that, Jeanne. _My second was, _what the hell is up with Ranger kissing me in public lately?_

"You ready to go, Babe?"

"Uh." I blinked at him stupidly for three seconds before I remembered the cop shop. "Yep. I thought we didn't need to be there until nine."

"Being early won't hurt you." _Ranger humour. _He slid his hand into mine and tugged me up to my feet. Then he scooped up both my files and his. I wasn't even sure how he knew which stack was his. He gave a little nod to Connie, and the same to Jeanne. "Ladies."

I followed Ranger out of the door, _I had no choice really considering we were holding hands,_ and straight into his ridiculous SUV.

Once we were both inside, instead of turning the car on, he just looked at me. I wondered if I still had hash brown on my face from my hasty breakfast earlier.

"You alright, Babe?" Ranger finally asked.

"Yep."

"Got a problem with Burrows working part time for Vinnie?"

"No more than usual."

For a split second, surprise flashed in his eyes. "You usually have a problem with her?"

"Uh." _I'd said too much. Clearly I was not about to blurt out the fact that I was jealous of her, or of her relationship with Ranger, or of her badass skill set. If we were in a competition on who was best suited to Ranger, she'd win hands down. _

"Babe." His eyes were speculative now, trying to figure me out no doubt.

"Well, why _did_ you give my skips to her? You know I have trouble making enough money as it is," I asked huffily.

"Babe." He reached over and tucked a stray curl behind one of my ears, giving me a slight smile.

I tried very hard to ignore his distraction attempt. "Seriously, Ranger."

"Steph, Jeanne's only going to be taking the bonds between two to five hundred thousand dollars. She'll be assigned more of Rangeman's bonds than yours. You know we're cutting back on bounty hunting, Babe. She approached me with the proposal. Financially, it's a smart move for Rangeman," Ranger explained.

"Huh." I wasn't sure how I felt about it still, but at least I knew Jeanne wouldn't be stealing all my skips. I guess it did make sense to bring in someone experienced that Vinnie could trust. But why couldn't Ranger have just left those bonds to me, knowing I'd ask him and the guys for help? _Maybe he didn't know you'd ask for help, _a little voice said. Or maybe he just didn't want to bleed money over it.

"You know there's always a job waiting for you Babe, if you need it," Ranger said softly.

I stared at him carefully. So this _was_ a plot to get me to work at Rangeman full time? I thought hard over his words for a few minutes. Didn't sound like a plot. Sounded like support. Or a backup plan.

"You sure you're up to the cop shop today?" he wondered carefully.

"I'm fine. Thanks for taking me."

Ranger somehow started his spaceship and pulled into traffic. "No problem, Babe."

"Ranger, there's something else I'd like to discuss," I broached hesitantly. He just gave me a look and an almost nod. I took that as my cue to keep talking. "My rent – "

"There's nothing to talk about," he said quietly, cutting off my words.

"But –"

"Remember when I said there's no price for what we give each other?" he asked.

I paused and reluctantly nodded.

"No price, Babe. I don't want to hear about this again. You don't owe me. Don't try to pay me back. That'll just piss me off. Understand, Steph?" As he pulled to a stop at a set of lights, he grabbed my chin and gently turned me to face him. "Understand?" he wondered again, a little more gently this time.

"I don't like it, but okay," I said faintly.

He pulled me closer to him and gave me a kiss that scrambled all my thoughts. The light turned green and Ranger let me go. Ranger went into his zone for the rest of the drive to the Trenton Police Department. I just tried hard to not think about the questions they were going to ask me.

"You ready, Babe?"

I glanced forward and realised we were parked two spaces down from the front door of the TPD. _Damn, that time went way too fast._ "Betcha."

I jumped down out of the car and met Ranger on his side. He had a thick folder in his hand and a bag of what looked like clothes. He draped his arm across my shoulders and tucked me against his body as we entered.

Jimmy Neely was manning the front desk. "Hey Steph, you should be right to go on through to Interview C. Ranger." Jimmy gave Ranger a respectful nod as we passed.

"Thanks Jimmy," I muttered.

I wasn't sure where Interview C was, but Ranger sure seemed to know the right direction. We arrived in no time flat. Ranger pushed open the door and guided me inside. No-one else was there yet. We really were early. Ranger moved over to stand by the tiny window. I stood next to him, unsure what else to do.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Steph. Ranger, how are you?" Andy Zajak greeted us as he dropped a voice recorder, pen and paper and camera. "Robin won't be a moment."

The door opened again and Robin Russell came in, locking the door shut behind her. "Are you okay, Steph?" she asked as we all sat down.

Ranger was seated on my left, Robin was across from me and Andy was sitting on her right.

"I'm fine."

"We'll take your statement first, Steph, and then ask you some questions. You know the drill," Andy said.

I nodded and we began.

Two hours later I was ready to tear my hair out. We'd gone over my statement multiple times, I'd answered question after question, and Ranger had given them the photos I had taken, the results of my finger nail swabs, and my clothing from the day of the incident. I didn't bother asking how he'd managed to get my clothes before I'd washed them. _That was one mystery I probably didn't want to know the answer to. _

"Alright, if we put a line-up together, can you identify the perp?"

"With pleasure!" I cried, happy to escape the room that seemed to be getting smaller and smaller by the minute. _I could have sworn the walls were starting to close in on me._

Ranger slipped a hand under the table and rested it on my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. _Oh boy, I hope he didn't think that would calm me down. _

"We'll come and get you when we're ready," Robin said, giving me a pat on the shoulder as she walked out with Andy.

I slumped back in my chair. "This seemed to take longer than last time. Does it usually take this long?" I asked Ranger.

"Yes."

"Am I being impatient?"

No answer, but he gave me a raised eyebrow. _Great. I was being impatient. _

*S^R*

"Alright, we've got a line up ready for you, Steph. Just follow me," Robin said warmly some time later.

"I'll catch up, Babe. Gotta go see the Chief," Ranger said, pausing long enough to press a branding kiss to the corner of my mouth before he was off around the corner with his thick file.

_Huh. _

"You still with me, Steph?" Robin asked with a teasing smile on her face.

"That man is too damn hot for his own good," I said, fanning my face with my hand.

"Damn skippy," she agreed, directing me into a room that was slightly longer than the interview room we'd just been in.

"Okay, Steph. Are any of these men the man who was using the name Isaac Turner and assaulted you?" Andy asked as Robin closed us inside.

We were standing on one side of a wall made of two-way glass. I stared at the seven men. I picked Talavera from the rest almost instantly. He was the one grinning straight at me. It sent creepy shivers down my spine. "Yep. Number four. That's Talavera."

"That's the man who was using the alias Turner and who assaulted you?" Andy clarified.

"Correct."

"Okay. Robin's going to escort you back to a private room. I want you to show her your injuries so she can make a positive ID with the photo's you've provided."

I stiffened. "What, you don't believe me? Do you think I'm lying and just doctored up some photos?" I asked, my voice growing higher and higher in pitch.

"Easy, Steph. It's pretty standard procedure," Robin assured me.

I was still sceptical, but what could it hurt, really? Robin took me into a private room and I stripped off my top half, making sure to hold my shirt against my tattoo so she couldn't see it. She had a camera with her and took another couple of photos of my chest and my still hand-shaped bruised wrists.

"What about your neck and face, Steph? You didn't mention those in your statement?" she wondered as I pulled my clothes back on.

"I got in between two women having a cat fight. They're not from Talavera," I explained.

Robin looked sympathetic. "I advise you next time to let them have at each other."

"Thanks, I'd kinda already learnt that lesson."

Robin, myself, Andy and Ranger reconvened back in Interview C a handful of minutes later. Andy had prepared my statement on the takedown and what had happened at the end of it for me to sign. I grabbed the pen straight away but was stopped by Ranger's hand.

"Read it, Babe. All of it," he advised.

I gave him a quick look, noted his serious face, and hunkered down to read my long statement. I sat it back down on the table.

"You happy with it?" Ranger asked.

I gave a nod. Ranger reached over and slid the papers to his side. Then he sat there and read it. _Once again, Batman had my back._ "Okay, Babe. You can sign now," Ranger said, startling me out of my pre-nap zone.

I grabbed the pen and signed at the bottom of my statement.

"Thanks for your time today, Steph and Ranger," Andy said, standing and holding out his hand.

Ranger shook it firmly first, then I did.

"I'll walk you two out," Robin volunteered.

We said goodbye to Robin at the door of the cop shop. I sucked in the not so clean city air like I was a man fresh out of a fifteen year sentence. It was good to be free.

"C'mon , Mandela," Ranger said, a tiny smirk playing around the corners of his mouth. _Ranger humour, twice in one day!_

We climbed into his SUV and hit the road.

"Babe, grab the files from the back," he asked quietly.

I turned around in my seat and snagged them. _It was pretty easy for me to sort them into his and hers stacks. His had a few extra zeroes on the end of the bonds. _

"Who've you got, Babe?"

I gave him a funny look, but flipped open my first file. "Dougie Kruper. Looks like he got caught selling lost and or stolen credit cards. Must be the repeat offender Connie mentioned. Bond's set at two grand."

"Next."

I set Dougie's folder aside and opened up the other one. "Whoa. Kyle Jackson. Age twenty four. Arrested for possession of four and a half pounds of marijuana. Bond's set at twelve thousand. Second time offence for possession with the intent to distribute and dispense."

Ranger fell silent for so long I'd thought he'd entered a zone. He pulled into the slot behind my car outside the Bond's Office. I was just starting to collect my things when he finally did speak. "Babe, you need help with Jackson, you call _me."_

I bit my bottom lip. _He thought Jackson was out of my league. He probably thought I should give him to Jeanne. Over my dead body_. "You think it's more than I can handle?" I asked as neutrally as I could.

"Babe, you can handle anything. Doesn't mean you have to handle it alone." That made me stop and think. _Damn, Ranger always had my back. _It sent a warm fuzzy feeling through my body.

"Okay, if I need help, I'll call you."

"Me, Babe," he reiterated quietly.

I paused. Maybe I'd hurt him more than I'd realised when I'd called Tank instead of him. I leant across the console slowly, placed a palm on his left cheek and brushed my lips across his lightly. "I'll call you," I promised, pushing on my sunglasses and hastily jumping out of the car.

I didn't bother heading back into the Bond's Office, I just made a beeline for my car and hopped inside. I'd go after Dougie today and worry about Kyle and calling Ranger tomorrow.I'd rescheduled with Sketch again while I was on R and R, but he couldn't fit me for a few weeks. He'd told me to just come in then, and he'd see if he could work on the colour while I was there.

I spent most of the day at Dougie's apartment watching Star Trek re-runs and managed to have him home back in time to watch _I love Lucy_. _All in a day's work._

* * *

_TBC..._


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **So a few of you brought up some really good points in your reviews. I went back and made some minor changes to Chapter 9 and Chapter 10. Basically, in Chapter 9, I meant Ranger *banked* her check, and then paid for her rent with his own money. Also, yes, Ranger arranged with Vinnie to change the skip chasing arrangements. I added in a paragraph on Steph's thoughts about that and her and Ranger have a short chat about it. And to be clear, Stephanie did not photograph her tattoo when she took those shots, and she held her shirt against her tattoo while Robin took more... I guess a lot of you focused on things I didn't really see as important to the story - but maybe I should have! Hopefully, if you read back over last chapter, it all makes sense now :D

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Violence, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault and related themes, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

Thursday, I devoted to finding information on Kyle. I staked out his house for a good couple of hours but didn't see any movement. His street wasn't exactly one where you went and asked neighbours about each other, so I headed over to his mother's address and knocked on her neighbours' doors. I didn't have much luck. Varying reports from the neighbours of the last time they'd seen Kyle Jackson visit his mother, anywhere between three weeks and three days. When I finally got up the courage to knock on his mother's door, she opened it, screamed abuse at me and slammed it shut again. She wouldn't be any help in tracking down her son.

I'd headed home after that, determined to get a good night's rest. I'd continue the search for Kyle tomorrow. Maybe I'd get lucky and some new skips would come in.

*_R^S_*

Three weeks and four other skips later, I cruised around the neighbourhood of the tattoo parlour, looking for Kyle Jackson and killing time until I could drop in and get Sketch to have a look at my tattoo. I had no idea where Kyle might be, and had drawn up nada over the past few weeks, so this seemed as good a place as any to look._ Also, there was an awesome little Deli that I could stop at for lunch. A girl's gotta have her priorities._ At ten to two, I headed back to the shop for my two pm appointment. I even managed to get a park three spaces from the front door. _I should have known I wasn't that lucky._

I climbed out of my car and froze, my eyes glued to an A2 sized image that had recently been framed in the window. I knew it was recent because it hadn't been up last time I'd been there. I also knew it was recent because I'd only had the tattoo maybe _four weeks! _I swung my purse over my shoulder and stormed into the shop. Sketch was the only one out front and it looked like he'd just recently finished up with a client as he was cleaning his station down.

"What the fuck is that?" I growled.

He paused and glanced up at me, raising one eyebrow. "What the fuck is what?" he wondered placidly, going back to his cleaning.

I let out a frustrated snarl. "That! In the _window_," I cried, sweeping my arm behind me.

He shrugged and stripped off his gloves. I watched as he stood and tossed them into the trash can next to the steel framed glass counter. He then proceeded to lean back against it, arms folded over his chest and his ankles crossed. He gave a small unconcerned shrug. "That's my tattoo."

_Oh hell no. _"No, that's _my_ tattoo!"

He started shaking his head. "I drew it, created it, I breathed life into it. It's mine. Deserves to be seen. Work of art."

"It's on my freaking body – _its mine! _It's not even finished yet!"

"You need to cool it in my shop, little gurl."

I turned to the man who'd just stepped out from the back room. He was _fine_._ F-I-N-E. _He had scruffy jet black hair, was nearly as toned as Ranger, startling blue eyes, and had a good foot on me. Oh, and had a fantastic dragon tattoo up one arm that disappeared under his shirt but that I could see hints of around his neck. I really wanted to stride over to him and strip his shirt right off that fine body and find out what else he was hiding when I remembered I was pissed. And that he'd just called me _little gurl_. Not to mention Ranger and I seemed like we were sort of… but I'd hardly even seen him the past few weeks. _Now was not the time to dwell on Ranger, Plum._

"Really, you want to go there right now?" I demanded, rounding on him and planting my hands on my hips. _I could so take him. Maybe. If I had a few years' worth of training first. _

"Lay off Jet, she's Mañoso's," Sketch sighed, waving a hand.

"Her? Mañoso's bitch?" he looked surprised and then curious.

"I am standing _right _here. I'm _no one's_ bitch!"

"Okay, I get it. She's sassy. Got a little fire. Gotta be a wildcat in bed," Jet said, nodding thoughtfully, his eyes running up and down my body.

"Standing _right here_!" I growled.

"Had Mañoso's man guarding her here the other week," Sketch said to Jet.

"I'm a fucking bounty hunter. I don't need _anyone_ guarding me."

"Woman, you need a whole team of men guarding you. I bet you're a pain in Mañoso's ass," Jet warned, pinning me with his eyes.

I struggled silently for a moment and managed to drag my eyes away from him and glare at Sketch. "You're supposed to keep quiet about my tattoo."

"I haven't told no-one."

"Everyone in Trenton will know before the day's finished if you keep that picture in the window!"

"Wait, wait. Rewind and start from the start. Why don't you want anyone to know about your tat?" Jet wondered, his thoughtful eyes staring at me once again, no doubt trying to see straight into my soul. _It was probably working. God knew Ranger and some of the Merry Men seemed able to._

"I don't want Ranger to know. The more people that find out, the harder it's going to be to keep quiet. It's nothing short of a freaking miracle he hasn't found out yet. "

"Gonna be kinda hard for him to miss it when he's fucking your brains out."

I turned my glare up a notch, but knew my cheeks were burning red, betraying me.

"Interesting."

I thought maybe I'd just revealed something I shouldn't have. I tried my best to ignore Jet, and faced off with Sketch once again. "Just because I was tipsy when I got the tattoo does not mean you can take advantage of me. You don't have the right to post images of _my body_ in the window for the entire world to see _without my permission!_"

I heard Jet hiss quietly. "You worked on her when she was _drunk_?" he growled.

Sketch gave a small shrug. "What, man? She was really into it, she signed the consent form and she paid extra. I got the skills and talent to make it work, so I did."

"Christ, you're just fucking lucky she likes it. If she was intoxicated when she signed the form, that means she _did not _give explicit consent. I should fire your ass for this shit."

Sketch gave a few small nods and a quick, cheeky smile. "But you won't 'cause I got talent."

"Fuck Sketch. Get out of here and go home for the day before I do something stupid like knock you into next week. I'll close up."

"Cool. Catch ya Mañoso's woman."

"Not if I can help it," I muttered as Sketch grabbed his wallet and keys and left. I slowly moved back towards the door.

"Easy, you're safe with me," Jet said, holding his hands up non-threateningly.

I stopped moving and hitched my bag up a little higher. I figured I could always sock him with it if worst came to worse. "Define safe," I said.

He gave me a small smile that could've melted ice off of a glacier and shoved his hands in his front pockets. "How long you had the tat?"

"A few weeks. Sketch was supposed to finish it off today, but it looks like that won't be happening. Ever."

"Jump up in my chair; I'll finish it for you."

I stared at him wearily.

"I do good work. I'm sure I can find the drawing Sketch was working from. I'll do it right."

"I'm not sure," I hesitated.

"You want to see some of my work? I'll grab you my book to look at while I set up."

He managed to steer me towards a station and helped me into the chair. Then he went and flipped the sign on the door to 'closed'. He dumped a photo album in my lap and moved around the shop comfortably, gathering supplies, cleaning his hands and grabbing a few pieces of paper.

While he was busy, I opened the album and flipped through the images. They were stunning. The colour, the detail, the shading; each piece was a work of art and pointed to one very talented artist.

"Convinced I can work on you now?" Jet asked, startling me. He had everything set up, gloves on and was watching me patiently.

"I guess so. I do want it finished."

"Shirt off and lay back," he ordered, grabbing up what I recognised as the initial drawing of my tattoo, the reference photo, and another more detailed drawing. He shuffled through them, nodding to himself as I dropped my purse under the chair, and shrugged off my light jacket and t-shirt. The cool air in the shop made my skin prickle.

Jet's eyes traced over me once, assessing, before they zeroed in on the tat. "The pain gets too much, you let me know," he ordered before hunkering down over me and getting to work.

*R_S*

"You said you've had this a few weeks?"

"Yeah, closer to five." I shifted, biting back the pain. I was pretty sure we were going on three or four hours. I was stiff, the whole right side of my body burned with pain. But I wanted it finished. There was no way in hell I was calling it quits. It was too important to me.

"Mañoso's got a woman in his bed, he don't wait a few weeks between visits. That tells me you're not in his bed. Yet I know for a fact that you're his woman. Care to explain that to me?"

"Nope."

"Lucky I don't need you to explain it for me then."

I raised both my eyebrows at him.

"I know Mañoso. He doesn't do long term. You're worth the effort for long term. That either tells me you're under his protection, and he's gonna make a play for you sooner or later, or, he cares about you just enough that offering his protection is sufficient."

"Is that so?" I wondered.

"Yeah. He better watch out though, or someone will make a play for you before him."

The way he said it had the hairs rising on my arms. I glanced up and his eyes met mine in a heated glance. _Oh boy, just what I needed, another alpha male interested in me_.

"All done, put your shirt back on and then I'll finish dressing it. You want a look first?"

I sat up and moved over to the floor length mirror. Tears prickled in my eyes. It was perfect. Of course it was. It expressed everything I knew I would probably never get the chance to say to Ranger. It was a dream; my fantasy, and probably the most intimate emotionally I'd ever be with Ranger and he'd never even know. I shuffled back to the station and got dressed dolefully before Jet finished dressing my tattoo.

"Thank you. I really appreciate you doing this, it means a lot to me."

"Mañoso better realize soon how much you mean to him and how goddamn lucky he is," he said warmly, a smile playing on the corners of his mouth. His face froze and blanked a split second before I heard the door slam open.

"What the fuck, Stephanie?"

I closed my eyes and dropped my chin to my chest. _Oh good Lord. This day was heading down the drain. First I find my tattoo is in the window for all the world to see, and now Morelli shows up?_

"You know the cop?" Jet wondered.

I opened my eyes with a groan and nodded slowly.

"Cupcake, seriously. What the fuck are you doing here alone? What the fuck are you doing here _at all_?"

_Crap, how did he even find out I was here? Someone must have seen me enter and reported it to him. Or maybe saw my car out front. Why was it anyone's business what I did in my personal time?_

"That's not your business, Joe." I took a few steps further away from the door before turning side-on so I could keep an eye on both Morelli and Jet.

"Bullshit."

"Want me to get rid of him, Sweet-pea?" Jet drawled.

My eyes darted nervously to Jet. _Sweet-pea_? _Seriously._

Joe looked like he was about to explode. "Outside, Stephanie. Now."

"No thanks, Joe. Jet was just about to finish cleaning my tattoo."

"You're _what_?"

"Uh, he was just going to let me look at some tattoos."

"That's not what you said."

"Paddling upstream now, Sweet-pea."

"And do not get me started on the fact that you know Zaiden 'Jet' fucking Cross by name."

"You have a name as cool as Zaiden and you go by _Jet_?"

"Not the time, Sweet-pea."

"What tattoo, Stephanie?"

"It's none of your business, Joe!"

"Does Ranger know about this?" he demanded.

_Jesus. It was my body, my choice. I could get a tattoo without permission from any of the men in my life! _I must have stayed silent too long though, because his eyes went flat, shuttered.

"So Ranger knows. What is it? _Where _is it? He own you now, Stephanie? Did he persuade you to brand his name on your body too?"

My blush at his words must have given me away.

His face turned red. "You're gone from my bed one fucking month and suddenly you're hanging out in tattoo parlours, binding yourself to Ranger fucking Mañoso!"

"Joe, it's not like that!"

"Show it to me. Show me your tattoo." Joe made a grab for me and suddenly I found my body behind Jet's.

"You need to back off now, cop, and leave her alone."

"Jesus Christ. You just fucking attract them, don't you Stephanie?"

"Joe, Ranger doesn't know about my tattoo. It's neither of your business what I got done. It's personal."

"I'm done. Mañoso can have you, if he'll even take you. He might not want my sloppy seconds."

"Get out, now," Jet growled, anchoring an arm tightly around my hips as I tried to lunge at Morelli.

I felt more than saw the stare off Jet and Morelli were having. The hair on my arms rose and the air was practically electrified with their anger and testosterone. I relaxed a little when Joe finally backed out of the shop. That wasn't to say I wouldn't kick him in the nuts next time I saw him, but at least he and Jet weren't going to have a shootout. "Please don't see the picture, please don't see the picture," I chanted under my breath as Joe headed towards his car.

My heart sunk as he glanced back through the window and his face froze. _Damn it. There went what was left of our friendship._ His eyes hardened and found mine through the glass. _He was hurt, but more than that, he was livid._ I was scared he was going to do something stupid. _Like confront Ranger. _He strode quickly to his car and jumped in, peeling rubber as he raced away from the curb.

"Shit!" I made a dash for the front door when Jet pulled me to a stop.

"I have to go! Joe's going to confront Ranger and Ranger might just _kill_ him."

"Well, he's heading in the wrong direction."

"What? How could you possibly know that?" I asked, dumbfounded as I turned to stare at Jet.

He gave me a small knowing smile, the kind that said _I know something you don't know. God men are jerks._

"Babe."

_Uh oh. Double uh oh. Quadruple uh oh. Infinity uh oh. This was bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. _

"Hi, Ranger," I turned nervously and slipped out of Jet's grip. My eyes darted over to where Ranger was leaning against the back wall.

_Now you'd done it, Plum._

* * *

_TBC..._


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

Thank you everyone for all the support! I could have written this story any number of different ways... Seriously - so many plotlines were running around in my head. I don't know what made me choose this path, but I hope you all continue to enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

Ranger's eyes were trained on mine. _Like a predator stalking his prey._

"Saw that your tracker had been stopped outside for a few hours. Put me on alert. Saw Morelli stop outside. Got here as fast as I could," he said quietly.

"Ranger, how did you know Morelli's car was here?"

Silence.

"Oh my God, Ranger! You can't bug a police car! I'm sure there are some really definite laws about that."

I gulped as Ranger pushed off the wall and slowly stalked towards me. "Babe." He kept moving, his eyes locked on mine as he invaded my personal space.

"Seriously," I said, voice wobbly, as he stood toe to toe with me and stared heatedly, "the lock you up in jail and throw away the keys kinda laws."

He dropped his heavy gaze to my lips, a second later his lips were on mine, giving me a slow warm kiss. He pulled back a fraction and stared at my dazed eyes with a look of pure male satisfaction.

"Babe. Never said I'd bugged Morelli's POS."

"Sweet-pea, Rangeman does security on this shop," Jet explained with an awkward cough.

_Oh. And I'd just lost my nutter at Ranger after assuming he'd had Joe's car bugged. Greaaaat. _My eyes zeroed in on Ranger, trying to get a feel for what kind of mood he was in.

"Want to explain what you're doing in Cross's shop, Babe?"

I shook my head slowly, even as the hand he had gently pressed on my back, holding me against him, started stroking me softly. "Uh, no. Not really."

"Wrong answer." He got a determined look in his eyes and I tried to brace myself for whatever came next, after all, Ranger usually got what he wanted.

My eyes cut to Jet. "You make both Morelli and Ranger nervous. Who are you?"

"No-one special, Sweet-pea."

Ranger's jaw clenched audibly as his gaze travelled between me and Jet. Assessing.

"I don't believe _that_," I muttered.

"Stephanie. You're trying my patience," Ranger warned.

Jet turned me away from Ranger and pulled me a couple of feet away. He cupped my face in both of his hands. "Mark this, I'm interested in you. Could see us being good together. You need anything, you call me. Anything. No strings attached. No pressure. Got it?"

I nodded slowly, trying not to freak out about what Ranger thought of this. Trying not to freak out period. _I'd _just_ met Jet._ _Christ, he must have a death wish if he thought he could touch me like that in front of Ranger. Not even Joe tried much in front of Ranger when we were together._

"Later, Sweet-pea. Take care." He pressed a kiss to my temple and strode into the back of the shop, nodding at Ranger and acknowledging him with a quiet, "Mañoso." My heart practically stopped beating in my chest. Jet just sort of kissed me in front of Ranger.

Jet was halfway through the back doorway when Ranger said dangerously, "_Mine."_

Jet paused, his back still to us, but nodded all the same. I exhaled a breath I didn't even realize I was holding. I heard a door near the back open and shut. _Jet must have left._ _Great._ I gulped. _Now I was alone with Ranger. Alone with an _angry_ Ranger. An angry Ranger who had just staked some kind of claim on me. Was what Jet said earlier true? Ranger had just been biding his time to make a play? Ranger had said something the other day too… that he had just fallen back to regroup, but he was done regrouping. Was that his way of saying something about us? I didn't think there could ever be an 'us'._

"Come here, Steph."

I shook my head back and forward slowly. "No thanks, I'm good here."

"Here." His face was blank, eyes piss-your-pants serious, his voice unamused.

_O-kay. _I closed the gap between us until we were barely a foot apart.

"You want to explain to me what all this was about?"

I shook my head slowly side to side again.

"Think you owe me an explanation."

My eyebrows shot up at this and my arms crossed over my chest. I tilted my head to the side, considering him. "Why?"

"_Why_."

"Yeah, why do I owe you an explanation?"

"Babe. Cross isn't a man who should be on your radar."

"He's not on my radar… though I might be on his," I finished on a mutter.

Ranger's eyes narrowed. "What did you get tattooed, Babe?"

I threw my hands up in the air. "If you knew why I was here, why did you even ask?"

"Babe. What did you get?"

I huffed. "Like I told Joe, Ranger, it's none of your business."

His eyes narrowed and he shifted back into my personal space, our thighs and chests touching. _Uh oh_.

"I saw how Morelli reacted. I think it's one hundred per cent my business." _You are one hundred percent my business, _was what his body language said but his words didn't.

A shiver of awareness shot down my spine at his possessive tone. _Pull yourself together, woman. You're an independent woman. You don't need an alpha male to tell you what is and isn't people's business. _"Jesus, just how long have you been here?" I said, attempting to inject some lightness back into the suddenly serious-vibed room.

His hand cupped my jaw and tilted my face up to his. "Steph. You don't tell me, I'm gonna flip that picture frame around," he jutted his chin in the direction of the window, "and find out for myself."

I remained silent, my heart pounding wildly. _He wouldn't? Would he? Oh God, he so would. _He took a determined step past me, towards the front window.

"Wait!" I grabbed his arm and tugged him back to face me. "I'll make you a deal," I said, sweating nervously.

His eyebrow rose, interested.

"It's not healed yet. I'll show you once it's healed."

He took the remaining step between us and slid his arms back around me. It took all my strength not to flinch when he brushed against my tattoo. "First."

"What?" I looked up at him, noted his face was deadly serious. For some reason this meant a lot to him. I didn't understand why. For all he knew, it was just a tattoo. _Yeah, but it wasn't just a tattoo, was it? It meant a whole lot more than he could ever anticipate. It meant more than enough to give him an excuse to pull back from me forever._

"You show me _first_."

"Uh… well," I hedged, shifting from foot to foot.

He took a deep breath and gave me a half smile. "How many people have seen it, Babe?"

"On my skin or in a picture."

His eyes darkened and he glanced over my body again, no doubt trying to figure out where I had the tattoo. Every spot his eyes lingered was like a physical caress. I was trembling with desire when his eyes finally met mine again.

"Both."

I cleared my throat nervously. "Well, Tank, Bobby, Lester, Lula, Connie, Sketch and Jet have all seen it on me and in a photo. Joe has only seen it in a photo. Jet's really the only one who's seen it finished."

"You show no-one else. I'm first to see it once it's healed. I won't press until then. That's the deal."

"Okay," I said, nodding once. _That just meant I had to figure out how to obtain a new identity and move countries before then. Oh, who was I kidding? He'd probably still track me down, halfway across the world. _

"Okay," he agreed, a smile playing around his lips, ruining the seriousness of the situation. It made me relax a little. He slid his shades back on. I found myself staring at my own reflection. "Let's go," he said.

I nodded and started taking steps backwards towards the front of the shop. _C'mon Plum. You're almost home free. _"Alright, I'll see you around."

"Think you misunderstand, Babe."

I raised an eyebrow and waited. His hand shot out and caught mine in a strong grip. I tugged just to test it. _Yep, I wasn't leaving Ranger any time soon_. We moved to the front of the shop, where Ranger locked up. I reached out and snagged the framed picture of my tattoo, carefully holding it tightly against my chest so no-one else,_ read Ranger,_ could see it. Then we were moving towards the back of the shop. Ranger locked the backdoor and closed it behind us. Two seconds later, I was buckled into the front seat of his 911 GT3. I tried the door. _Child lock was on. Damn him._

"What about my car?" I asked as he climbed in behind the wheel.

"Taken care of."

I threw my hands into the air in frustration. "Okay Ranger, what the hell is going on?" I asked.

He stopped in his motions and turned to face me. The shades came off. His eyes met mine and held, softening slightly. _Damn, whatever it was, it was serious._

"Babe, Talavera got released this afternoon."

The colour leached instantly out of my face. I clasped my shaking hands together tightly in my lap, resting them on top of the picture. "What?" I whispered. "Who? How much?"

"Two point seven million bail. Don't know who paid it, but it got paid in cash."

"What? That much money just for assault, false identity and his original offence?"

"Remember that folder I delivered to the Chief a few weeks ago?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said softly.

"Evidence. Against Talavera. Assault, murder, drugs. Multiple counts of suspected kidnapping and rape."

My breathing became shallow and rapid. Ranger's hand pressed down on the back of my neck, putting my head between my knees. "Deep breaths, Steph," he murmured soothingly, his thumb stroking the skin on the back of my neck gently.

When I got my hyperventilating under control, I slowly sat up and found we were parked in the Rangeman garage. "Am I under house arrest?" I wondered quietly.

"You're on lock down, Steph, so I can protect you. Need you safe, Babe. Couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you."

I blew out a sigh. _How could I get angry when he said sweet things like that?_ _Sure, it was completely machoistic, overbearing and Ranger at his control freak best, but at least it showed he cared. _"Okay," I agreed, a little reluctantly.

I was rewarded with a smoking hot kiss that made my toes curl and my body hum. "Let's get you inside and settled," he said, his voice a little rough, making parts of my body clench with desire

I had to wait for him to come around and open my door, but the wait was worthwhile; I got to watch his body as he glided around the front of the car. _And what a damn fine body it was._

Ranger helped me out of his car and curled an arm around my shoulders, pulling me against his hard body. He brushed his lips across mine softly, grabbed a small suitcase out of the boot and moved us towards the elevator.

"Are they my things?" I asked, looking down at the suitcase. _The suitcase definitely wasn't mine. It was a pretty high end brand. And new. Most of mine were old, really old. _

"Picked you up some stuff," he said as we climbed onto the elevator.

I turned to gaze at his face. _I was pretty sure Ella usually picked stuff up for me. Did it mean something that he had done it personally this time, or was I reading into it too much?_ Heat curled low in my belly at the thought of him taking the time to pack for me. It was such a sweet gesture that meant a lot to me, because I knew how precious his time was.

"Thanks." I relaxed back into his strong body, and was rewarded with a random whiff of his tantalizing scent. Zings of pleasure rippled through me as his arm slid around me and his hand slipped under the left side of my shirt to rest hotly against my skin. I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from moaning as his fingers started tracing random patterns. _God, what he did to me. _His lips dropped down to rest on the juncture between my shoulder and my neck, brushing back and forth slightly. I shivered and felt him smile against my skin._ Christ, what was going on with him? I knew he wanted to sleep with me, but this was all new. Kissing me in front of gang members, the police and his men. Telling other men, 'mine'. Practically cuddling me on camera for all his men to see?_

We headed straight up to the seventh floor and into Ranger's apartment. He dropped his keys on the side table and I placed the framed picture and my pocket book down. Ranger kept moving determinedly to the bedroom. I had no choice but to go with him, considering his arm was still wrapped firmly around me. _Oh yeah, like it was such a hardship Stephanie. You would follow him to the ends of the earth without evening blinking._

He placed the suitcase with my things at the foot of his bed and turned us so we were face to face, our bodies touching practically from chests to toes.

"Ranger?" His eyes were dark but warm as they stared down at me.

I took short shallow breaths as one of his hands slid around me to rest low on my back, his fingers curling around the top of my butt. His other hand slipped into my hair. I was watching the pulse in his neck. It was slowly picking up speed. His hand tilted my head upwards so I would meet his eyes. His gaze locked on mine and it seemed like maybe he was trying to say something with just that look. _But I could be reading into things again._ His scent surrounded me, Bvlgari mixed with leather and something else that was intrinsically Ranger. His head dipped down and his lips brushed lightly back and forth across mine. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I felt flushed, and nervous, and frantic all at once. _Seriously, what was going on with him?_

I groaned and tightened my grip on his shirt where my hands rested just above his hips. He just kept barely touching his lips to mine, over and over again. _God, I couldn't take this teasing any longer_. I lifted my head slightly and took control of the kiss, feeling immense relief when he didn't pull back and our lips moulded together exactly how I wanted them to. His hand at my butt pressed our lower halves together tightly; him hot and hard against the juncture of my thighs. My insides turned to liquid as his tongue invaded my mouth and he took back control of our kiss.

_God I loved the taste of him. I loved the feel of him. I loved the smell of his skin. I loved him. _The world froze; time slowed down. Everything in my being zeroed in on Ranger._ I loved him. _My universe rocked on its axis before shifting and settling back into place. _Except everything was different now. I loved him. I loved him._

Our tongues duelled together as our hands started to wander. I wondered briefly if Ranger could feel my increased intensity. _I wanted to pour everything I had into this one kiss. Wanted to show him just how much he meant to me. How much I appreciated him. How much I respected him. _

Ranger walked backwards slowly, dragging me with him until he hit the edge of the bed. He tumbled backwards, pulling me down on top of him, never breaking our kiss. The warmth of his body invited me closer, but you wouldn't have been able to slide a sheet of paper between us as it was.

His hand slid down my back, pausing just below the junction of where my butt met the back of my thigh. He squeezed and kneaded, sending thrills straight to my core. He shifted me slightly and his erection pressed right against my clit making me moan into his mouth in approval. My panties were practically ruined. I found myself rubbing against him like a cat, trying to take the edge off, to get some kind of relief from everything I was feeling.

Ranger's hand pressed down hard on my backside, stilling my movements. His tongue changed rhythm, slowing down, and tantalizingly stroked mine in a very familiar cadence that I remembered from our one night so long ago. _I love you. I'm never loved anyone as much as I love you_, I thought as he gentled the kiss and gradually ended it. We were both panting heavily as our lips parted.

"Steph," he murmured, his voice drowning in want, his eyes full of something as we stared unblinkingly at each other.

A bolt of love, lust and desire shot straight to my heart as he lifted his head and softly kissed me again. My heart clenched painfully as I wished I meant as much to him as he meant to me. Energy charged the air between us as our lips brushed once, the intensity of the moment making me gasp as he firmly drew my mouth back down to his.

"Oh! So sorry dears. Forget I was here."

Startled, I jumped off the bed and away from Ranger. I turned to watch Ella scurrying away from us in a hurry. _God, that was embarrassing._ I dropped my gaze to the floor and hid my face in my hands. My face felt like it was glowing beet red and I wanted nothing more than to run into the closet and barricade myself there, perhaps for the next decade. _Mortification didn't even cover it_.

I chanced a look up from the spot I was staring at on the carpet. Ranger was up on one elbow, had his chin pressed to his chest, his eyes closed and his other arm draped over his bent knee. God, he was sexy. Dark, dangerous and beautiful. His erection was still hot and hard between his legs, trying to escape from his pants. I wanted to lick my lips but thought that would probably be inappropriate, considering that type of behaviour had landed me in this awkward situation in the first place.

As if he felt my eyes on him, he looked up and we locked eyes again. Sparks flew, my embarrassment slowly started to fade as my body reacted under his powerful gaze. Then he looked like he was trying not to laugh, _the scumbag. Here I was mortally embarrassed we'd been caught making out by Ella and he was laughing about it._ _Not to mention the fact that I'd just admitted to myself I was actually, completely, head over heels in love with him and he thought the situation was funny. _

"Come back here, Steph," he requested lightly.

I folded my arms across my chest and gave him my best glare. _It was lucky he made me feel so angry; otherwise I might have broken down in tears._

"Babe." In two steps he was in my personal space and hugging me against his chest as he rumbled with warm laughter.

_Perfection. He made me feel so safe._ _Like I was finally home. I didn't get to hear him laugh much. The hug was just an incredible bonus. The real reward was that I'd somehow managed to make him happy, even if it was just for a moment._

We stood quietly for a few minutes, Ranger stroking his fingers through my hair as I buried my face in his neck, breathing him in. "We'll leave Ella to unpack your things, Babe. Let's head down to five and check in," Ranger suggested, sneaking in a quick kiss and a nip to my bottom lip before he pulled away.

I wanted to protest, to say we could stay right here and finish what we'd started… but then I chickened out. I wanted more from him, right or wrong. I wanted more than a quick release and a see you later. I loved him. I needed more. Not that Ranger was quick… oh no, Ranger was anything but quick. Slow, thorough, patient, generous, passionate. He was a man who took his time and enjoyed every second of it. A shiver raced down my spine as I remembered just how wonderful making love to him was. _And then of course, there was the small matter of hiding my tattoo…_

His hand suddenly grasped mine, startling me out of my daydream. "Later," he murmured, staring down at me with knowing dark eyes that held the promise of what I knew could be so good between us. He gave my hand a squeeze and pulled me out of his apartment.

_Mmmmm, later indeed._

* * *

_TBC..._


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Violence, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

It had been fifteen days since Ranger had brought me to his building. Fifteen days of being cooped up inside. Fifteen days of trying, and succeeding, to keep my tattoo hidden. Fifteen days of sharing a bed with Ranger. Fifteen days of long, hot, slow burning kisses that were driving me slowly mad. Fifteen days of petting and rubbing and tasting. Fifteen days of not actually jumping his bones and him not jumping mine. Fifteen days of me managing to bite my lip and not reveal to him how much I loved him. But it was only a matter of time until he saw my tat, _or figured out my feelings_.

He'd found it the other day when his hand had gone exploring under my night shirt. He hadn't pushed though. He would keep his word and not look until it was healed. _That meant I'd have to keep my word and actually show him when it was healed. _

The good news was, I'd been able to run a few searches on my skip, Kyle Jackson, track him down, and send the Merry Men out to pick him up. Kyle had been exactly where I'd thought he'd be; in a rehab centre over in Hamilton. The guys got him re-booked and took him straight back there in a matter of hours. It seemed his mother had given him an intervention or an ultimatum. I wasn't up on the details though.

More good news sort of, depending how you looked at it. The Merry Men had been taking turns giving me self-defence lessons. We'd been doing an hour in the morning and an hour in the late afternoon. The exercise was probably the only thing keeping my hormones in check enough so that I didn't ravish Ranger while he was sleeping.

The bad news was there'd been no news or sightings of Talavera. Ranger didn't want to take any chances. I was pretty sure he didn't want to let me out of the building until Talavera's court date. That was still weeks away.

We were currently sitting in his office, arguing. _Sort of._

"Babe, I don't like this." His arms folded tightly across his fine chest. His powerful shoulders practically blocked out the sunlight from one of his enormous windows. It made me want to run my hands all over his body and memorise each and every rise and fall.

"You won't let me out of the building, so someone has to come to me."

His eyes darkened and I noticed my eyes were trained on his muscles and I was biting my bottom lip. _Damn_. My panties started to feel damp. I shifted uncomfortably. Ranger noticed, a soft growl emanating from his chest. _Damn, he didn't miss a beat. It had been like this for the past couple of weeks. I think living in close quarters with little, uh, relief, was making us hyperaware of the other. I kept wondering what was making him hold back. We both knew he could very easily get me naked if he wanted. He didn't seem to want that just yet, which made me curious. Did he still think Joe was in the picture?_

"Bobby's been handling it."

"Oh, is Bobby an expert on tattoo care and maintenance?" I sassed, trying to alleviate all the tension that seemed to be building in the room.

Ranger paused for a long moment, staring at me intensely. I tried hard not to shiver under his gaze. "Could be."

I rolled my eyes, partly in response to his answer, partly just to draw my eyes away from his ridiculously tempting body and face. "Bobby's told me it's not infected and it _looks_ like its healing okay. I want a definite yes or no," I explained, my eyes already drawn back to him. I could see a definite bulge in his pants that seemed to grow the longer my gaze lingered.

"I'll make a call," he said gruffly, pulling out his cell phone and striding out of the office, away from me.

I flopped face down on his office couch and closed my eyes in sexual frustration. _Damn._ I thought about slipping my hand into my panties and relieving some of the tension. Then I thought better of it. Anyone could walk into Ranger's office without warning. I didn't want anyone catching me doing _that_ unless it was Ranger. Maybe still not even then.

I shifted on the couch slightly and my nipples rubbed through my bra and along the couch fabric. I moaned quietly and rolled onto my back. I was so hypersensitive around Ranger; I swear I could probably cum just from one look.

I felt someone's eyes on me, a warm tingle on the back of my neck and my nipples perked up some more. I opened my eyes and found Ranger giving me a dangerous smile that made my tummy flip-flop and my lower region clench.

"He'll be here in ten minutes," he said softly.

"Cool," I murmured, sitting up so I could make room for him. The fabric of my clothing rubbing against my skin made me hiss as I shifted. _Damn, damn, damn_. _I wanted him so bad._

Ranger dropped down onto the couch beside me and without warning lifted me onto his lap, my thighs straddling his, his erection pulsing against me. It made me feel so hot that he was just as aroused as I was. His hands slid slowly around my waist to link behind my back. I placed my hands on his shoulders for balance as I swayed into his touch.

"Come here, Babe," he murmured seductively, staring at me with his warm brown eyes.

I involuntarily licked my lips. His eyes darted down to linger on my lips for a moment and then reluctantly moved back up to my eyes. I shivered, longing flowing through every muscle in my body. _Kiss me, Ranger_. _I love you_, _God, just kiss me_.

"I'm here," I said. _I couldn't get much closer. _

"No, _here_," he emphasised, tilting his head up a little.

_Oh. There_. I leant forward close enough so that our lips were gently skimming. My heart pounded in my chest as our eyes remained locked. My doo-dah contracted in a mini orgasm and I groaned. _He had too much power over me and my body. It just wasn't right._

"Here?" I panted teasingly, our breaths intermixing as the air crackled between us.

He leaned in, his gaze so full of heated passion that I nearly melted right then and there. "No. _Here_."

He captured my lips and slowly drew me into a passionate kiss that kept building and building. I couldn't stop the trembling that shivered through my body as his lips moved over mine. I held on tightly as he softly nibbled at my mouth, his hand slipping under my shirt and slowly, slowly sliding down my abdomen to the waistband of my jeans.

_Yes, yes, yes!_

Then his hand was inside my panties, his rough fingertip circling my sensitive bud, over and over, setting my body ablaze. He dipped a finger, and then two into my wetness, making me cry out. His mouth swallowed my mewls of pleasure, as he brought me higher and higher until I crashed over the peak, breaking our kiss to cry out his name.

"Beautiful, Babe," he whispered hoarsely before his lips trailed down my neck, licking and tasting. His hand moved to my hip and started rocking me over him back and forth.

I whimpered on each movement as his steel hard erection brushed against my oversensitive clit. His mouth captured mine again, quieting my sounds as we picked up our pace and our hands frantically ran over each other's bodies. I couldn't get enough of him quick enough. I wanted more. He thrust his hips up against mine roughly as he used his grip to grind me down on top of him. My eyes rolled back in pleasure and I threw my head back.

"Mine."

That was all it took. My abdomen heated at his possessive tone and I came for the second time in minutes. He slowed our rocking down, but didn't let up. He was still hard underneath me. _God, I want him inside me so bad! _One of his hands came up to cup my head and drew my lips back to his.

Ranger's phone buzzed. I whimpered as he pulled back reluctantly to answer it, not stopping our rocking motions. "Yo. Hooah." He disconnected and found my lips once more, heating me up all over again before finally pulling away and forcing my hips to a stop.

"Your guest's here, Babe." His eyes were black as night as they stared at me from under hooded lashes.

"Five more minutes," I pleaded. _I could feel just how into our make out session he was and knew he didn't want to move either._

"Later. Promise. I want a lot more than five minutes with you," he said with a wicked gleam in his eye and a very suggestive kiss as he set me aside so he could stand up. I watched as he adjusted himself and bit back another whimper of longing.

"I'll hold you to that." I itched to reach out and drag him back down on top of me, visitor be damned.

Ranger just flashed me a panty melting smile and headed out of his office.

I groaned in frustration but got up and headed into Ranger's adjoining bathroom to splash my face with cool water and clean up as best as I could. When I came out, I sat in Ranger's desk chair and waited for someone to arrive. I figured it would probably be Sketch or Jet, or maybe someone Ranger knew and trusted that was familiar with tattoos. Jet soon walked through the office door, closely followed by Ranger.

"Jump up on the desk, I'll use the chair," Jet instructed.

"Well, hello to you too," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes for good measure.

He paused and grinned at me. Then he ducked down and kissed my forehead. "Hello, Sweet-pea."

"Babe. Ten minutes," Ranger said from the doorway. I shivered at the warning in his voice and the fact that it still held the promise of _later_. I couldn't wait for later. _Later was going to be as soon as Jet left. Maybe even before he was out of the building. I wish it was later right now._

Ranger was leaning against the doorframe, his eyes zeroed in on Jet. I shifted nervously until Jet stepped out of my personal space.

"See you then," I replied huskily. Ranger's gaze darkened and swept between me and Jet before he gave a nod and closed the door behind him. I stood up and sat back down on the edge of Ranger's desk.

"You know the other day, how I said I wasn't sure whether Ranger was waiting to make a play, or if just keeping you safe was enough?" Jet asked as he lifted my shirt up and over my head.

I shivered slightly as his warm gaze slowly travelled down my torso. It felt so wrong to have anyone other than Ranger touching me or looking at me. _Especially after what had just happened. What had just happened? He said he wanted more than five minutes with me. What did that mean? A whole night? Twenty-four hours? A week? Until he got me out of his system? It would hurt a hell of a lot more now when he walked away from me than last time. But any length of time spent with him had to be worth it. Quality over quantity. Ranger had quality in spades. His bedroom quality was off the chart. Right?_

"Yeah." I was distracted with thoughts of me and Ranger and _later_.

His eyes moved back up to lock on mine, forcing me to focus. "He's not waiting. He's making a play."

_Oh boy._ My heart fluttered. _A play? Did he feel for me what I felt for him?_ I swallowed down the optimistic lump that was forming in my throat and making my eyes prickle. "I think you're mistaken. Ranger doesn't make serious plays." I fiddled nervously with the edge of the desk, willing myself not to listen too carefully to Jet_. I couldn't get my hopes up. I just couldn't. Hadn't I just decided I would take whatever time Ranger was willing to give me, consequences be damned?_

He sat down in Ranger's chair, pulled on a pair of gloves and inspected my tattoo. "I don't make mistakes." He pulled out some things from his bag and started cleaning my tattoo.

"What, _ever_?" I asked sarcastically, trying to mask the weird mix of joy and pessimism I was feeling.

He paused from his work and looked up at me. "Making a mistake can get you killed."

I snorted as he went back to work, a real smile working its way onto my face. He and Ranger were similar in a lot of ways… and completely different in others. I was safe and relaxed around Jet. Warm and cosy. What I felt around Ranger couldn't be described. It was off the chart. Electrifying. Soul nourishing.

I gave Jet a wry smile. "That's funny; you sound like someone I know."

He gave me a quick grin and refocused on my tat. "Mañoso's a good guy. He'll take care of you and treat you right. If he doesn't, I'll be the one making a play." His eyes flashed up to meet mine again. Tensions sizzled in the air between us. _Wow – was it getting hot in here? Whew. _

"So, how _do _you know Ranger?" I wondered, clearing my throat awkwardly.

"I was a pilot in the army. I mostly did extraction work."

"Hence the nickname," I clarified with raised eyebrows. He flashed me a grin and nodded. "So, extraction work? Meaning you extracted Ranger from third world countries?"

"Mañoso and his men would get impossible missions, and then it'd be my job do the extractions no-one else had the balls for when they beat the odds. I left the army not long before he did."

"He must trust you a lot, then," I murmured mostly to myself. _He'd have to. You'd count on the extraction team with your life – if they weren't where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be, it could be game over._

He stood up and his chest brushed slowly against mine. Two of his fingers slipped under my chin. His eyes moved between mine and then darted back down to my lips. "Let's just say, if it wasn't Mañoso, I'd be seriously trying to make you fall out of love with him. But, he has my respect. I'm gonna go wash my hands. Everything looks good. Be right back."

I was stunned mute for a few seconds. I cleared my throat twice before I managed, "Don't worry, and take your time."

I sighed and stood, pulling my shirt back on. _Great, that was just what I needed; another alpha male sniffing around. Because I didn't have enough of them already. There was only one I actually wanted sniffing around. It was too bad he wasn't as direct as Jet was. _

I moved in front of Ranger's desk to pace. _And how did he know I was in love with Ranger? I'd only just admitted to myself a few days ago. Was I that terrible at hiding my feelings? Anyway, being head over heels in love with Ranger didn't change anything. Jet was wrong – Ranger would never make a serious play for me. I was more trouble than I was worth. He was way out of my league. He didn't do relationships. _

"Don't make a sound bitch, or I'll cut your throat and dump you at Mañoso's feet."

My blood froze even as I jolted. _Oh God_.

* * *

_TBC..._


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Violence, Sexual Situations, **Attempted Sexual Assault and related themes**, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

**A/N: **Thank you everyone for the continued support. I love reading all of your reviews. I would say I'm sorry about all the cliff-hangers, but I'm really not. I love writing them, and I love reading your responses to them. At least I post the next chapter quickly, right? Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

Talavera held one hand over my mouth; the other clasped a knife pressed so tight against my throat it was already starting to cut into me. I could feel small droplets of blood dripping down onto my forearm. I was trying really hard not to panic. I wasn't trying hard enough. I was in panic city.

_How had Talavera gotten inside Rangeman? Did he have other men inside? Was this an ambush? The Merry Men and Ranger would have no warning. Holy shit. Holy shit. This was not good. Play it cool, Steph. _

"Just move backwards nice and slow," he whispered into my ear, his hot breath blowing against my skin.

A pool of dread settled heavily in my stomach. I couldn't look around but I knew from memory we couldn't keep moving back much further. _God, Ranger. Where are you? _Then suddenly we weren't in Ranger's office anymore. We were in the wall. _Holy fucking shit._

_How did Talavera know about a false wall in Ranger's office? If he knew, did that mean Ranger would know also? How did Talavera get inside the wall in the first place?_ I took a small glance to my left as the office wall slid back into place in front of me. It wasn't just one section of false wall. It looked like the whole office was surrounded by false walls. We were in some kind of secret passage. _Crap on a stick. This was really not good._

"Babe?" His muffled voice sounded off, like he knew something wasn't right. I wanted to cry out to him, to fight Talavera off and jump into his arms and never leave. But I couldn't. I was trapped. _I'm here, Ranger. Right here!_

I froze as I heard Ranger's quiet footsteps enter the office. The knife at my throat dug in a little deeper, reminding me to stay silent. There was silence for a long moment, no doubt while he scanned his office and realised I wasn't in it. I listened as Jet's heavier footsteps stepped out of the bathroom.

"Where the fuck is she, Cross?" Ranger hissed, slamming Jet's body into the wall on the opposite side of the room to us. I heard them struggle with each other for a few minutes. Then silence except for the two men breathing heavily.

"Something's not right here, Mañoso. I went into the bathroom for a minute tops. She was gone when I came out. I didn't hear anything."

Talavera pressed his lips right up next to my ear again and said, "Move." He pushed me forward. We moved silently through the yard wide gap. And kept moving. The whole building must have been done with false walls and secret passages.

"I was watching the door. She didn't come out," I heard Ranger say, his voice starting to fade as we moved away.

"She couldn't have gone far. You'd know if she left the building."

"Control room." Ranger's voice was faint now as we crept along the walls.

Talavera stopped suddenly, jerking me back into his body. I tried not to squirm. _God, I didn't want him touching me._

"Where the fuck is she?!" Ranger roared.

We must have stopped directly next to the control room. _Oh God, Ranger. I'm right here. Help me. _Talavera dug the knife just a little harder into my throat. I bit my tongue to stop myself from whimpering.

"She can't have just fucking disappeared!" Ranger growled again.

I didn't like being the cause of his worry. I didn't like him worrying period.

"Ranger. We'll find her," Tank rumbled.

"Boss, come and take a look at this. Everyone else shut the fuck up," Lester ordered.

I knew Lester was on monitor duty today. _What had he seen? Was it Talavera entering the building? If so, they would know I was in trouble, right?_ I couldn't see what was happening inside the control room, _obviously being stuck inside the wall_, but no-one was saying anything in there. I didn't even think anyone was breathing.

Finally, I heard something smash. "Are you fucking telling me she doesn't have one of her single fucking trackers on her?!" Ranger shouted. "Not a single fucking, _Goddamn_, one!" Something else crashed into the wall.

I whimpered softly. I wanted nothing more than to be wrapped in his arms, safe and sound. To reassure him that I was fine, that everything was fine. _It wasn't. _

"Move," Talavera whispered in my ear.

_Oh God. No. No way. _Somehow I knew we wouldn't just be moving around the building some more. Talavera had what he wanted now. _Me, with no way for Ranger or the Merry Men to track me. _I felt relatively safe in the Rangeman building. Once we got outside who knew what would happen to me.

_Okay, well I had a pretty good idea – torture, rape, murder. I didn't like any of those options. And did I mention the guys had no way to track me?! How would they be able to find me and rescue me in time? How would Ranger be able to save me? They won't, _a small voice murmured in my head_. Oh God. I had to get away from Talavera. _

He manoeuvred me through the passageway until we came to a ladder. We climbed down together, much to my complete discomfort. I was pressed tight against the metal of the ladder and he was pressed tight against my back. Parts of him rubbed up against me that I had no desire to feel. _Ever. Shit. _

We climbed down the ladder to street level. I could tell because the sounds of nearby traffic got louder and louder. I knew if we'd gone down to the garage or one of the other underground levels, the traffic would have started getting quieter again.

Talavera pressed the knife back up against my throat and moved along the wall, lightly tapping the outside of the building. When he heard what he wanted to hear, he shoved at the wall. A man hole sized section popped out. We were towards the back of the Rangeman building, in the side alley. A Yukon that looked straight out of Ranger's fleet was parked there.

The back door of the car flew open and Talavera shoved me inside. I fell into a man's lap. He had four gold teeth at the front, a bald head and beady little black eyes. I cringed away from him but his hand grabbed my hair and yanked me forward.

"Oh no, little bitch. You going nighty-night." His hand closed over my mouth with a rag soaked in something that smelled sweet. My last thought before I passed out was that I needed to stay conscious.

*_R^S_*

"Where you want the bitch, Zac?"

My head swam, pounded really. My mouth and throat were dry and my tongue was so swollen it felt like I was suffocating. My hands were cuffed in front of me and my ankles were bound by a rough rope that scratched at my skin with every jostle.

I couldn't quite muster the strength to open my eyes. Someone was carrying me over their shoulder. _Probably gold toothed guy. _I tried to keep my breathing even and not to hyperventilate. I had to believe that Ranger would find me. _He just had to._

"Throw her down in the basement. I'll get to her in a minute," Talavera said with a laugh. I thought I heard a woman's laughter join his, but I was having trouble focusing.

"Don't ruin this, Talavera. We have a deal." _There!_ It _was _a woman's voice. One I thought I recognised, but the memory was fleeting.

I sensed we were moving along a hallway and forced myself to open my eyes. I needed to know the layout of the building in case I somehow managed to get free. The hallway we were in led straight to the front door. There were four doorways leading off of it that we'd already passed. Whoever was carrying me turned left and descended down some steps. There was no door at the top, but he had to stop to open a door at the bottom of the stairs. I shut my eyes just as he_ literally_ threw me to the ground inside the room. I couldn't hold back a small groan. The next moment the man's boot connected with my left side, hard. I cried out and curled into a ball, opening my eyes so I could at least anticipate when the next blow came.

"That's nothing, Bitch," gold toothed man hissed as he crouched down in front of me, "Wait 'til Talavera's through with you. Then you'll know the meaning of pain." He laughed as he stood up, kicked me again and moved towards the door. I watched him open it and wave to me as he slammed it shut. I heard something click that sounded a lot like a dead bolt.

_Awesome. _Breathing hard through the pain in my side, I sat up and took stock of the basement. _Think, Steph_. _What would Ranger do? Oh, God. Ranger. Would I ever get to see him again? To touch his face, to feel his arms around me, to tell him that I loved him? Don't think about that, Stephanie. Pull yourself together and find a way out!_

There wasn't much down there; a ratty single mattress, a small dirty bathroom with only a sink and toilet and a hot water heater. No weapons. No sharp objects. Nothing that would help me escape. The door we'd entered through was the only one. There was a small window up high that I might be able to fit through, but even if I moved the mattress over there, folded it in half and stood on it, I still wouldn't be able to reach the stupid window. _Damn. _

I ventured into the toilet, my bound ankles making it slow going. It was dirty, but I _really_ had to go. With some difficulty, I made use of the facilities and shuffled back into the main room. I heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and male laughter. _Shit. _I scrambled back against the wall and waited. The door clicked and swung open. _Talavera. _Dread settled heavily in the pit of my stomach.

He shut the door forcefully behind him and took a few steps into the basement, his empty eyes zeroing in on me. A shiver of fear worked its way through my body. _Hold it together, Steph_.

"Mañoso thinks he so fucking smart. Well he's not. And now I've got proof," he said.

I kept my eyes trained on him. I didn't dare blink. I didn't want to take my eyes off of him for even a second. "How'd you get into Rangeman?" I asked, not really expecting him to answer, but wanting to try to buy myself some time.

A creepy smile lit up his face. "The man who owned the building before Mañoso was even more fucking paranoid. Gutted the entire interior and replaced it with false walls so he had plenty of escape routes if needed. Doubt he mentioned it to Mañoso. They weren't on the best of terms and the takeover was… hostile. Guy didn't have enough time to get into his passages. Died on scene. I went and asked his woman 'bout the passages; Mañoso doesn't know 'bout the woman _or_ the passages. I get the drawings of the building for a small bargain, waltz right in under Mañoso's mother fucking nose and steal his bitch. Now you're going to pay."

I moved along the wall as he strode over to me, trying to circle back around to the door. I hadn't heard the dead bolt lock after Talavera came in. That should mean it was open. _If I could just get past Talavera…_ I couldn't move fast enough with my bound ankles. His hand grabbed my hair and yanked me against his body. His other hand went straight for my jeans, trying to unbutton my fly.

Terror erupted in my body. Adrenaline kicked in.

"No! Get off of me! Get off!" I screamed, twisting and struggling to get out of his grip. I connected my elbow with his windpipe. He just laughed. Fear started to weigh down on me heavily. I head-butted him in the nose so hard I saw stars, but was rewarded with a satisfying crack. A wide smile stretched over his face. _God, he was fucking psychotic. Did he feel no pain, or just get off on it? Maybe he was just fucking high all the time._

His hand moved from my hair and closed around my throat, squeezing enough to hurt, but not enough to kill me. I panicked and struggled hysterically some more as he managed to get the button undone and yanked down my fly. _Oh God. No!_

Adrenaline pumped through my system as he shoved my jeans down my legs. I brought my handcuffed hands straight up under his jaw. It made him reel back and pause, the smile slipping off of his face.

"That hurt, bitch," he murmured quietly, casually slamming his fist into my face.

I staggered backward, my vision blacked out but I was saved from falling by Talavera grabbing at the front of my shirt with both hands and ripping it in two.

_I didn't want to be raped. Please God, help me. _I tried to use my hands and arms to keep him off of me, but all my movements seemed out of sync with my brain. His hands enclosed around each of my breasts and squeezed. I cried out and a tear slipped down my cheek, closely followed by another. I couldn't help myself, I started sobbing, still trying to escape him to no avail. _Please, no. _

"What's this?" Talavera asked, one of his hands releasing my breasts to trace over my tattoo. "I'm going to enjoy cutting that off of you, bitch," he said with a sickening smile, "and sending it back to Mañoso. It'll be all he'll have to remember you by."

He reached behind him and pulled a flick knife out of his pocket. _Oh God_. My throat tightened in fear; my eyes darted wildly around the room.

A heavy fist pounded on the door. One of Talavera's hands closed back around my throat, so tightly this time I couldn't breathe.

"Zac, man. There's something going down up here!"

"Can it fucking wait?" he asked with an impatient drawl, smiling down at me as I struggled for air.

_I was going to die. _Black dots swam in my vision and my lungs started burning. I clawed and scratched at his hand, digging my nails in as hard as I could. _Fight it, Stephanie_. _If you lose consciousness now it's all over!_

"You need to get up here _right_ now!"

"I'll be back for you, Bitch. I'm going to enjoy fucking that pretty little mouth, then your pussy, then your ass, and making you scream," he promised, releasing my throat but grabbing my jaw and pulling me into a bruising kiss. He sunk his teeth into my bottom lip before he pulled away. I tasted blood as I gasped for air. "You'll be begging for Mañoso to save you, but he'll never even find your body."

I was tossed back onto the ground forcefully and fell hard on my left arm. There was a sickening crack and pain shot up my arm. Talavera just laughed and left the room. _Now was my only chance. When he came back, he'd follow through, I had no doubt. _

* * *

_TBC..._

**A/N: **Wow, so a lot of you suspected Jet! That would've been some plot twist. Damn, now I wish I'd thought of that when writing. There was a clue right back in chapter one about the secret passages. Some of you remembered, but most of you didn't ;)


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Violence, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

I struggled to my feet, the pain in my body making me feel disorientated. I had to get out of there. I yanked up my jeans and resecured them as best as I could. My shirt was unsalvageable, so I just left it hanging off of me.

I shuffled and jumped my way over to the mattress. Ignoring my injuries I grabbed it and painstakingly dragged it over to the window. _I had to try. I wasn't going down without at least trying to escape this nightmare. _

I'd only gotten about halfway across the room when I heard a scratching sound. I froze and crouched down, ready to fight for my life. My heart pounded hard in my chest as I scanned the room, searching for the source of the noise. My eyes zeroed in on the window. I fell onto my butt with relief. _Thank God. _

The window opened and a large man squeezed through and dropped gracefully to the floor. "You alright, Sweet-pea?" Jet asked, striding over to me.

Tears leaked down my face as he knelt in front of me. His eyes went flat as they assessed me. He was decked out in a black on black Rangeman outfit, Kevlar vest, and utility belt with double shoulder holster loaded to the max. I couldn't say anything. My throat was clogged with emotion, fear, and adrenaline. Not to mention it hurt like a bitch; just breathing and swallowing were making it ache.

"Can you stand?" he questioned gently, pulling out a knife and slicing through the ropes at my ankles.

I gave a little nod as he pulled out some tools and picked the lock on my cuffs, stuffing them in his back pocket when he'd freed my wrists. I chanced a quick glance down at my broken arm and saw bone sticking out of my skin. I closed my eyes and repeated my _stay conscious _mantra over and over even as my stomach rolled and my vision swam.

"Good girl," he murmured, sliding an arm around my waist.

I groaned as he came into contact with the ribs gold toothed man had kicked. They were probably either bruised, cracked, or broken. I pushed past it and with Jet's help made it to my feet.

"H-how? R-ranger?" I managed to get out. I was stunned silent at my voice. It didn't sound right – it was all raspy and hoarse.

"Easy, Steph. Don't speak. I've got you. You're safe now," Jet promised, walking me away from the door.

I wanted to ask again where Ranger was, how had Jet found me, where _were_ we, that I wanted Ranger. No sound came out of my mouth when I tried though, just a frightened little croak. Jet helped me move towards the far wall. I didn't, couldn't ask why we were heading that way and not towards the door.

"Your earrings have trackers in them that monitor not only your location, but your heart rate and temperature. Lester noticed that you should have been standing in the control room with us, according to the monitoring system. Ranger knew something was off and acted out his big scene as Lester watched your tracker. You kept moving through the building. We suited up and tracked you here. Ranger's outside with his team. They wanted to take the softly, softly approach. I wanted to take the get you out immediately, guns blazing approach. We compromised. I'm in here to grab you; they're out there to draw out Talavera and his men. He wouldn't have fit through that window. He'll get to you as soon as physically possible."

A small pang of relief echoed through my chest at his words. Ranger would get to me as soon as possible. I knew it deep down in my bones that he would stop at nothing to protect me. _He always did. _We finally reached the wall. Jet propped me up against it and let go. My legs held me up, amazingly enough.

"Wait right here," Jet instructed, pulling out a small square device from one of his pockets and striding over to the door. He slapped it on, just above the door handle and sprinted back over to where I was. His body covered mine just in time. A small explosion sounded from somewhere near the door.

Jet pulled back and glanced over his shoulder. "Damn, Mañoso always did get all the good shit," he muttered, curling his arm back around my waist and directing us back to what was left of the door.

There was a nice hole roughly the size of a basketball where the doorhandle had been. Jet pushed on the door and it swung open freely. All hell sounded like it was breaking loose upstairs.

"You stay behind me, keep your head down and you stick close, okay?" Jet demanded.

I nodded.

A determined look settled over his features. His hand grasped mine and he slowly made his way up the stairs, me hobbling along behind him, my left arm clutched tightly to my chest. He paused at the top of the staircase and held me back. I waited in the stairwell as he scoped out the situation.

"Fuck you, Mañoso. Your bitch tasted real good, but she didn't put up much of a fight!" I could hear Talavera yell from somewhere towards the front of the house. More gunfire answered Talavera's statement.

"C'mon. The back looks relatively clear. Can you hold a gun?" Jet asked.

I tested my right hand by giving it a squeeze. Yep, it was fine. I held out my hand palm up to Jet. He gave me a wide grin and pulled his spare Glock 19 from his shoulder holster.

"You go first, I'll cover our backs," Jet said, taking once last glance before motioning me to the backdoor.

I crept forward, my gun scanning in front of me as Jet practically plastered himself to my back. We moved slowly and quietly down the main hallway.

"Shit!" Jet pushed me inside the closest doorway and followed me in. He slid his head out of the doorway and pulled it back rapidly. Bullets spattered the hallway and doorframe.

I held up my arm to protect my face and moved back into room to get away from the splintering wood and plaster.

Jet stuck his head back out and fired a single shot. The bullets stopped. _Huh._

"Time to move," Jet said, motioning me first.

We stepped back into the hallway. The gun fire outside was quieting until it faded to an eerie silence. Jet pressed a hand firmly against my back to keep me moving. We reached the backdoor. Jet shifted me to the side and pointed my gun back up the hallway. Looked like it was my turn to watch our backs.

He slowly opened the door and peered out.

"Let's go." His hand grabbed my elbow and we darted out of the open door.

We were nearly halfway across the backyard when it happened. I heard a shot fire and Jet jerk beside me and fall down on his hands and knees.

_No, no, no, no, no! _I dived on top of him flattening him to the ground and spun over onto my back, my gun held steadily in front of me.

Talavera limped out of the back door, his left hand holding his side where blood was soaking his shirt at an alarming rate.

"Fuck you, Bitch," he gurgled, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth as he raised his gun again.

I pulled the trigger on my gun, and kept pulling it until I ran out of bullets. Talavera collapsed on the ground. He wasn't getting back up.

A second later, Ranger framed the back door, his gun trained on Talavera also. His eyes darted over to me quickly and I could see the panic in his face from where I was, all the way across the yard. But he held his ground, assessing our surroundings and sweeping the backyard back and forth with his gaze. Tank stepped up behind Ranger a moment later and suddenly Ranger was holstering his weapon and sprinting towards me.

"Steph, get off me. You weigh a fucking ton," Jet gasped.

I rolled to the side and started frantically feeling around his back for where the shot went in.

"I'm fine, Sweet-pea. Hit my vest," Jet mumbled, sitting up as Ranger dropped down on his knees beside me and dragged me roughly against his chest in a desperate embrace. _Safety._

"Dios, Babe," he muttered agitatedly, his hands running over me anxiously.

I didn't hesitate for a second. I leant forward and captured his lips with mine in a heart wrenching kiss that shouldn't have left him with any doubt in his mind how I felt about him. He returned my kiss with equal fervour, reassuring me silently that I was alive and safe. He gentled his grip on me and pulled back slightly so he could inspect me thoroughly. All the time he made sure we were touching in some way. Connected. His eyes hardly strayed from mine for more than a couple of seconds at a time. He catalogued my various injuries and his murderous gaze settled on Talavera's prone form.

"K-killed him, Ranger. Won't t-touch me again," I rasped.

His eyes were nearly black as they met mine again, his hand moving slowly to my throat. I sat patiently in his lap as his fingers ever so softly traced the red marks on my neck.

"I'll be okay," I managed croakily.

"Babe," Ranger whispered, gently drawing me back into the protection of his body. His hand smoothed over my hair as the other one held me against him gently. He pressed kisses to every inch of my skin he could reach without moving me. I melted into him, closing my eyes at the bone wearying relief that rushed through me. _We were alive, safe and together. That was all that mattered. Wounds would heal. Memories would fade. As long as he was safe, that was all that counted._

"Ranger, let's get her into an ambulance," Jet suggested carefully, like he wasn't sure how Ranger would react.

Ranger didn't say anything, just stood in one smooth motion, taking me with him in his arms. I rested my head on his shoulder as we slowly moved around toward the front of the house, Jet flanking us on one side, Tank stepping in on the other.

The front yard looked like a war zone. There were fallen bodies on the lawn, the majority of which seemed to still be alive, or at least moving. The front of the house was riddled with bullet holes. The entire street was blocked with Rangeman vehicles and a few police cars. There were a fleet of ambulances trying to get to ground zero. Ranger kept walking until we reached the last ambulance that was at the entrance to the street.

Paramedics rushed around us, banging open the back doors, loading casualties in. Ranger climbed straight into the back of his chosen ambulance and carefully loaded me onto the stretcher. Jet climbed in after us. I'd lost sight of Tank, but he quickly re-appeared, helping an injured Lester onto the stretcher next to me. He had a knife stuck in his arm near his left shoulder and a bullet wound in his right thigh. Neither was bleeding too badly, so I hoped they weren't serious.

"I'll take care of this," Tank said to Ranger.

Ranger barely took his eyes off me, but he gave one tiny nod.

Hal climbed in and settled next to Lester, holding a compress on his arm.

A paramedic stuck his head in the back of the ambulance and paled at the sight of four heavily muscled, heavily armed men. Then his eyes zeroed in on me and he climbed inside, pulling the doors closed behind him. There wasn't really enough room for all of us, and I was beginning to understand why they always said you could only bring one person with you.

Paramedic guy somehow made it around all of us and banged a hand twice on the front of the ambulance. I heard the car start up and we slowly started moving.

"Everyone needs to find a spot and stay still. Let's go over your injuries one at a time," he instructed, pointing at Jet first.

"Bullet hit me in the vest. Feels like I've got a couple of cracked ribs. I can wait," Jet said, moving into the far corner to try to get out of the way.

"Good. You," paramedic guy pointed at Ranger.

"She's my priority," Ranger said stoically.

I froze in a panic. _Was he hurt? Did he need treatment? I didn't care if I was his priority, he was mine!_ I ran my eyes over him, reaching out with my right hand to feel his vest for bullet holes and the places the vest didn't cover.

He caught my hand gently and squeezed, drawing my gaze to his face. "I'm not hurt, Babe," he murmured.

I exhaled a giant sigh of relief that had me coughing in agony. Both my ribs and my throat hurt.

"Okay, what are your injuries?" the paramedic rumbled, hunkering down next to me.

"She's been strangled, broken arm," Jet said quickly.

"And ribs," I whispered.

"What about your ribs, Babe?!" Ranger demanded.

I just pointed to my side where gold toothed man had kicked me. _Thankfully it wasn't the side of my tattoo._ _Damn it! My tattoo. With my shirt hanging off me in shreds Ranger could clearly see it! _My gaze darted back to his face, but he didn't seem at all concerned with my tattoo, he was too busy tracing the red marks on my side that were steadily changing colour.

"And, have you been sexually assaulted?" paramedic guy asked carefully.

"Not quite," I said hoarsely.

Ranger's relief was palpable. _So was mine, as a matter of fact. I'd been lucky again. This time it had been way too close for comfort._

"We'll come back to you; you're still talking and breathing so your trachea is probably not too damaged. You with the knife?"

"Knife in my shoulder, bullet in my thigh. Doesn't feel fatal. They've both missed the arteries," Lester relayed his assessment.

"And you?"

"Just the bullet in my forearm," Hal said with a shrug.

Paramedic guy shuffled over to Lester and placed some padding around the knife, bandaged it up swiftly and taped it firmly in place. He had a quick glance at his thigh wound and handed Lester a thick wad of gauze. Then he checked Hal's wound and gave him some more gauze as well. He made it back to my side swiftly and stared at Ranger.

"You're going to have to move," paramedic guy said calmly.

For a moment, I thought Ranger was going to refuse, but he stood and moved around so he was standing at my feet. He carefully placed a hand just above my ankle and gave me another reassuring squeeze. My heart melted.

Paramedic guy stepped up to my side and carefully probed my ribs. "Not broken. Possibly cracked, but I think just bruised," he said, considering.

I watched him as he moved to a shelf and pulled out a few of what I knew to be instant ice packs. He tossed them to Ranger. "Get ice on her ribs and crack one for your friend," he instructed.

Ranger wasted no time squeezing the packs to activate the liquid inside. He got one on my ribs and then turned to help Jet out of his vest and holsters before handing over the pack. Paramedic guy had already started applying a bandage and pressure around the open wound on my arm. While he was doing that, he carefully shoved a pillow under my arm to keep it more immobilized.

"Come up here and keep pressure on her arm," the paramedic said to Ranger.

Ranger slipped his hand into mine and pressed down on the bandaging.

Paramedic guy moved around to stand by my head and cautiously inspected my neck. "Do you have any difficulty breathing or swallowing?" he asked me.

"Just hurts a little when I do," I answered softly.

"Did you lose consciousness?"

"No, ten more seconds and I probably would have."

"How did they strangle you?"

"He used one hand and squeezed."

"Okay, I'm going to touch an area, or ask you about an area, and on a scale of one to ten, I want you to tell me how bad it hurts. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

The paramedic had just finished his assessment of me when we pulled up at the hospital and the back doors of the ambulance were flung open. Everyone, bar Ranger and the paramedic filed out. Ranger helped the paramedic strap me to the stretcher and then helped lift me out. Ranger didn't leave my side as we entered the emergency room, much to the dismay of the doctors and nurses.

We spent over twenty six hours in the emergency room. The influx of patients had slowed things right down, not to mention the x-rays I needed, examinations, questioning by the police and having to get surgery and a cast for my arm.

It was close to seven pm the following day when we entered Ranger's apartment, Bobby following us in with a whole host of instructions for my care and wellbeing. I fell into bed and didn't surface for thirteen hours, Ranger wrapped around me the entire time, making me feel safe and secure.

* * *

_TBC..._


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Violence, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

I woke slowly to hushed voices and dappled sunlight. There was a drip in my arm and a heart rate and oxygen monitor on my finger. _Guess I missed that part of the conversation last night._ I needed to use the bathroom, but was too scared to move in case I dislodged something I wasn't supposed to or hurt myself. Ranger was nowhere to be seen, but the bed was still warm where he'd been.

"Ranger?" I called hoarsely. My throat was a little worse than yesterday. I did remember the doctor warning me the swelling could be worse today. _Great._

The voices outside stopped and the bedroom door opened. Ranger was dressed only in a pair of his black silk boxers. He padded over to me, closely followed by Bobby and Bones.

"How you feeling, Babe?" Ranger asked as he sat next to me, bending down to press a soft kiss to my lips. He looked tired and there was a hint of stubble around his jaw line. Guilt hit me hard. _I was probably the reason he wasn't looking his best._

"I'm okay. Gotta pee," I explained in a whisper.

Bobby stepped forward and hit a button on the machine, removing the clip on my finger. He then set to work shutting off the drip and freeing me from it. "Pee first, then we'll talk," Bobby said, leaving the bedroom with Bones in tow.

Ranger helped me sit up, and then stand. We shuffled to the bathroom and Ranger left me in private to do my business but made sure the door was left open a crack so he could hear me. I was washing my hands at the sink when I happened to glance up at the mirror.

"Holy shit."

Ranger was instantly at the door with a quiet, "Steph?"

"Fine," I managed, my throat starting to ache just from the small amount of talking.

I stared at the mirror unblinkingly. I was dressed in one of Ranger's sleeveless black shirts and a pair of his black boxers. To go with the outfit, I had a matching bruised cheek, split bottom lip, and a hand print shaped bruise around my throat. _I looked like hell. No wonder Ranger wasn't looking so crash hot! Just looking at my injuries made me feel worse._ I dried my hands and opened the door. Ranger was leaning against the wall next to the door. He carefully pulled me into his arms and just held me for a few long minutes. Despite my injuries, contentedness washed over me.

"C'mon, Babe. Gotta let the nurses back in here," he murmured eventually, pressing a kiss to my hair and taking me back to bed.

I slouched down gingerly and sighed softly. My whole body ached, but I wasn't feeling as bad as I'd thought I would. _I must be on some pretty damn good painkillers._

Ranger went back to the bedroom door and opened it, letting Bobby and Bones back in. He then crawled onto the bed next to me and stroked my hair soothingly as Bobby hooked me back up.

"You're nil by mouth for the next twenty-four hours, Steph. Everything you need: nutrients, fluids, antibiotics and pain killers are getting to you through this drip. You're on bed rest for the next few days, and you should rest your voice as much as possible. Bones and I will take it in shifts to watch over you," Bobby explained.

"Ranger?" I croaked.

"I'll be here, Babe. Don't worry. Not going anywhere," he promised quietly, pressing a soft kiss to my brow.

*_S^R_*

For the next four days, I pretty much stayed in bed resting my body and my throat. Bones and Bobby took it in turns to ask me questions about my pain on a scale of one to ten, did my throat feel more swollen, was I making sure to do deep breathing every hour, et cetera, et cetera. They actually weren't too bad as far as nagging nurses go. I mostly slept on and off, so I wasn't too bored.

True to his word, Ranger stayed with me, sleeping in the bed with me at night, and working from his home office during the day.

The only problem was, when Ranger wasn't in the bed with me when I slept, the nightmares came. I'd just awoken from such a nightmare, gasping for air, the ghost of someone's hand around my throat.

"Babe."

I jolted slightly and glanced up at the bedroom doorway. Ranger was standing against the frame, in his standard black on black uniform, watching me with slightly shuttered eyes.

"Hey, Ranger," I said, my voice nearly back to normal.

He pushed off of the doorway and crossed the room to sit down next to me. "You're still having nightmares," he commented, his eyes tracing over my features intently.

I knew for a fact I was starting to look better. Bobby had removed my drip yesterday just before lunch. I was currently on a liquid only diet, but it was just for the next two days. Bobby wanted to be sure my throat was fine and up to working order before I ate solids again. The bruises on my neck were now of the greenish tinged variety. I hoped that meant in a few more days they'd be yellow, and then fade away to nothing in a couple of weeks. I didn't like looking in the mirror and being reminded I had been so close to death.

"They'll go away," I replied, sitting up and taking a deep breath like Bobby had taught me. _Eventually, anyway_. _It had taken months for the nightmares after the Junkman/Slayer incident to stop._

"Stephanie," Ranger began.

_Uh oh_, _use of my full name._

He paused and assessed me some more before sighing quietly. "I gotta go out, Babe," he finished.

That wasn't what he was going to say, but I let it pass. "Okay, I'll see you later. Be safe," I said quietly.

"For a few days."

_Oh. _"Oh."

"Didn't plan it, Babe," he said, his eyes trying to stay connected to mine as I dropped my chin to my chest.

I knew I couldn't expect Ranger to wait around for me to fully heal. He ran an important company, had responsibilities I didn't know about to the government and had to look after his men. He'd been putting his life on hold to take care of me. I'd practically been waiting for him to say he needed to go out for a job. _But a few days. _

While we'd seemed so close before the _incident_, it was like he was drifting away from me again. I wondered if it was just because I was injured, but even when the drip got taken out, he still only gave me light kisses and gentle hugs. I didn't know what to think anymore_. Maybe he was trying to give me time to pack up my shit and get out of his apartment. I'd practically moved in. He must be sick of me by now and I'd more than worn out my welcome. Maybe he _had _seen my tattoo, and this was his way of letting me know it didn't change anything between us._

"Steph, I know I said –"

"It's okay, Ranger. You gotta do what you gotta do. I'll be fine. I'll see you when you get back," I murmured, glancing up to meet his eyes so he knew I was sincere.

_I would see him when he got back. Everything would be different though. Again. I loved him; I knew he felt something for me, but I was starting to think we'd never be in the same place at the same time emotionally. _

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a sudden hug. I raised my good arm and moved it around him so I could hug him back. Tears prickled at the back of my eyes but I sucked in a deep breath and forced them down. _This felt like a goodbye. I hated goodbyes. We were saying goodbye to our co-habitation. That was all. We'd still be friends. He'd still help me with skips and lend me his Merry Men. _

"Either Bobby or Bones will be in the building at all times. Just call them and they'll come up. Anything you need, Babe, it's yours," Ranger said as he released me and stood.

I watched from my seat on the bed as he packed a duffle bag and pulled a few more weapons out of his safe. He dropped the duffle at my feet when he was finished and ducked down to give me a slow, long, hot kiss. _Oh_. _Now I was even more confused._

"Later, Babe. Don't go crazy," he whispered against my lips.

"Don't get shot," I replied.

His lips brushed mine once more and he was gone. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. The tears were coming back again. _Damn hormones. Must be that time of the month. _I glanced at Ranger's clock. It was just after ten am. I figured Bobby or Bones would be up to check on me at lunch time to remind me not to eat any solids. That gave me nearly two hours to shower, pack, and hopefully feel human again.

It was a painstaking process. I had to wrap my cast in cling film and then tape plastic bags around it to stop it getting wet. Washing my hair one handed took forever. Then trying to take the cling film and plastic bags off was another job all in itself. Brushing my hair, doing my makeup and getting dressed were all a struggle. Packing up all of my things was the easy part. _There wasn't exactly much to pack._

I was sitting on the couch, the bag Ranger had bought me with all of my things next to me, flicking through the TV when Bones entered with a quiet knock. I silently let out a relieved sigh. He'd be much easier to get through than Bobby.

"Hey, Bones," I called, hitting mute on the TV.

"Hey, Steph. You going somewhere?" he asked curiously, wheeling a small cart towards me that I knew contained my liquid lunch.

"Yep. Ranger said it was alright for me to head home," I said, my fingers crossed under my leg. _Whoa boy, what a whopper!_

"Oh. He did?" Bones asked, a cute little frown puckering his brow. "He didn't run it by me," he said, sounding a little put out.

"I'm sure it just slipped his mind, you know, with him having to head out on a job and all," I said reassuringly.

Bones didn't quite look convinced. "Maybe I should just call and check with Bobby," he said doubtfully.

"Why? I'm feeling a lot better. I'm not taking painkillers as often, I'm remembering my antibiotics, I'm keeping my liquids down, my voice is nearly back to normal, and my bruises are changing colour. You and Bobby are just a phone call away if I need something," I cajoled, pasting a smile on my face.

"Hmmm." Bones rubbed a hand roughly over his jaw line.

I took the opportunity while he was thinking to remove the cloche from my lunch. Hot pumpkin soup and something that looked like a thick shake, but was probably a protein shake disguised as a thick shake. It all smelled wonderful anyway.

Bones remained silent as I steadily consumed everything. "Alright, here's the deal, Steph. You're going to check in with me or Bobby three times a day. Nine am, one pm and eight pm. Bobby or I will visit you once a day for a check-up to make sure you're doing okay. You start to feel off in any way, you call us immediately. We'll be able to tell during our visit if you're off. If you don't tell us the truth, you'll be back here on bed rest here. Okay?" he asked firmly.

"That sounds okay," I agreed.

"Good. When did you want to leave?"

"Now." I replaced the cloche on the cart and rolled my neck, preparing myself to stand up.

His eyebrows shot up. "Right _now_?"

I shrugged. "Yep. No point hanging around." On the outside, I probably looked like a calm, sane woman. On the inside I was shattering. _I didn't want to leave Ranger's apartment. Didn't want to go back to reality. But I had to. Ranger wouldn't be back for days. He'd clearly said goodbye to me. It was time to go. I just needed to hold it together long enough to get home, get rid of Bones, and then I could fall apart._

Bones just nodded and got to his feet, helping me up to mine. I must have looked or sounded convincing enough. I took a last glance around Ranger's apartment and bit my trembling bottom lip. _I'd really miss this. I'd really miss him._ _He won't miss you_, a nasty voice echoed in my mind.

"We'll check in with Ella. She'll be able to drop some meals off to you that you can just re-heat or whatever. Remember, you're on liquids for all of tomorrow too," Bones cautioned.

"I remember," I sighed.

We went down to six and met with Ella. She loaded Bones up with my dinner for tonight, and all of my meals for the next three days. She kept trying to catch my eye, but no way was I making eye contact with her. _She probably had some sixth sense that would be able to tell my emotions and the fact that I'd lied point blank to Bones. She would have to have some kind of sense to deal with all the Merry Men on a day to day basis and come out on top._

"I'll bring some more meals over in a few days, if Ranger's not back," Ella said to me, giving me a gentle hug and a pat on the back.

_What did she mean, if Ranger's not back? _"Thanks Ella, for everything," I said gratefully as we pulled apart.

"You behave yourself, Stephanie. It'll be a minimum of four weeks, if not eight before you're fully back on your feet," she warned.

_Jeez, everyone was a momma or papa bear. _"I won't go looking for any skips until I get the all clear from nurse Bones and nurse Bobby," I promised, flashing a cheeky grin. She just shook her head and ushered Bones and I outside.

Bones stopped by a supermarket on the way home so I could grab a few essentials, _you know, like tasty cakes, olives, peanut butter, potato chips and white bread. _I wanted to be prepared for when I could eat solids again. I needed to make up for the past few weeks eating only healthy helped me settle into my apartment by changing the sheets on my bed, putting all of the food and Ella's meals away and cleaning my bathroom. I nearly asked if he would do those things once a week if I paid him, but I managed to hold my tongue. He gave me a kiss on the forehead and told me he'd see me later.

_Finally I was alone. _I glanced at my answering machine and noticed it had ninety nine messages and that the memory was full. _Great_. I hit play and lay down on the couch to listen to them as tears trickled down my face and I mourned the loss of whatever it was Ranger and I had had.

_I just hoped the ache in my chest would slowly fade over time._

* * *

_TBC..._


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer**: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (_muahhahaha_).

**Warnings**: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Violence, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

When the ninety nine messages finished playing, _of which around eighty seemed to be from my mother, _I sat up and rubbed my hand over my face before sniffling loudly. I was about to stand up when I noticed someone sitting in the sofa chair to my right and just about screamed the building down before realising it was Bobby.

"Jesus, Bobby! How long have you been there? What the hell?" I gasped, holding a hand over my pounding heart and sucking in a deep breath.

"I could ask you the same thing, Steph," he said, folding his arms tightly across his chest.

_Uh oh_.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked nervously.

"You left the building."

"I ran it past Bones, he okay'd it," I replied, leaning back as I watched Bobby's eyes darken.

"You're crying," he accused.

"I'm fine," I muttered defensively.

He frowned at me and leant forward, touching his hand to my leg gently. "I was under the impression that Ranger expected you to stay _in_ the building."

"Well, he didn't say that to me," I mumbled.

He sighed softly and gave my knee a gentle pat. "I see." _What did Bobby see? _"You can stay here, but you'll be closely monitored. We still don't know if Talavera's associates will want revenge. Hopefully when Ranger comes back, he can shake some sense into you."

Bobby stood up and left me doing a fish impression. _Shake some sense into me?_

"What?" I blinked up at him as he leant over me.

"Lay off the screaming, okay? You're still healing," Bobby said with a small smile, dropped a kiss on my forehead and was gone.

*S_R*

After a few days, I settled into a routine. It mostly involved eating, watching movies, ignoring my home phone, screening calls on my cell phone, and napping. I remembered to check in with the guys three times a day, and when they visited me at night, they brought me new movies and new video games. After day one Bobby had taken one look at my stir crazy eyes and had had an Xbox brought over. I was acing Halo, Call of Duty and Medal of Honor but needed more practice at Grand Theft Auto and Need for Speed. The other guys had started making a habit of coming over for a few hours and duking it out with me each day. Even Jet visited every couple of days.

Even with all the entertainment, nothing could distract me from missing Ranger.

*_R^S_*

It had been three weeks since Ranger had left for a job that was supposed to take only a few days. I didn't want to press too much, but Bobby assured me he was fine, the job was just taking longer than expected.

I was lying on my couch, vegetating, mostly feeling sorry for myself, when Lula's number popped up on my cell phone.

"Hey, white gurl! How you doing?"

"Hey Lula, I'm getting better every day." It was true. The bruising on my neck was now faded to a pale straw yellow colour. My ribs were only giving me small twinges of pain now and then, and well, my arm was still in a cast for another three to five weeks. The only thing that was slowing down my recovery, according to Bobby, was my nightmares. I was only managing about an hour or two of consecutive sleep at the most before I awoke in a cold sweat, or screaming.

_But Lula didn't need to know about that. _I thought my concealer did a pretty good job of hiding from Bobby and Bones just how little sleep I was actually getting. I kept hoping they'd go away, but they hadn't. _The nightmares, not Bobby or Bones_. Bobby had booked me in to see a shrink in a couple of days' time to hopefully work through them.

"Gurl, that's good news. Tankie told me not to bother you while you resting, so that's why Lula hasn't called. Anyway, I think you should come down and hang out at the Bond's Office for a while. You'd get out of the house, and we'd get to catch up with your skinny ass. Whadda ya say?"

I couldn't help myself. I laughed in what seemed like the first time in weeks. _Hell, it probably was the first time I'd laughed in a month. _

"Sure Lula, that sounds great. I better let my nurses know where I'm going first. I'll see you soon," I said, grinning.

"Alright, gurl. Don't forget to bring donuts." Lula disconnected and I laughed again. _Only Lula._

I dialled Bones' number and he picked up on the first ring. "You okay, Steph?" he demanded.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, Bones. Just thought I'd let you know I was going to the Bond's Office to hang out with Lula and Connie for a few hours."

"Okay. Don't do anything –"

"Strenuous, I know, Bones. I know I'm not ready to start chasing down skips again. I'm just going there for some girl talk. Relax," I advised.

"Alright. Later." Bones disconnected and I sighed. _I'd nearly gotten them trained to say goodbye._

I called Tank to see if I could mooch a ride. I figured since Lula was the one wanting me to visit, Tank might as well get driver duties. Tank picked me up at my apartment door fifteen minutes later. His eyes scanned over me from head to toe.

"You're not sleeping," he said, ushering me out of the apartment and locking the door.

_How did he know that? I'd put on so much make up I couldn't even tell I had black bags under my eyes. _

We hopped into the Yukon he was driving for the day and headed off. Tank ran into the Tasty Pastry for a box of assorted donuts and dropped me off outside the Bond's Office with minimal conversation.

"Just call me, and I'll be down here to pick you up in a flash," Tank said.

"Thanks, big guy."

I climbed out of his car and headed inside. I was instantly surrounded by squeals, hugs and chatter. I hung out with the girls for a few hours. Connie did my nails. Lula graffitied my cast in the few blank spots the guys had left and we mostly just had fun. It was a welcome relief.

The bell on the door tinkled and I had a sense of déjà vu.

"Stephanie Plum, back from the dead."

I rolled my eyes and glanced at Jeanne Ellen Burrows. _Yep, déjà vu alright. Crap._

"Heard you had another run in with Talavera," Jeanne said, striding over to Connie's desk to collect her files. And mine apparently if the bond on the top file was any indication. "I've been covering for you while you're off… resting," she said, noting where my eyes were looking.

The smirky little smile on her face made me want to slap her, not to mention the tone she'd used. _Resting my ass. I was covered head to toe in fading bruises and my arm had metal screws and plates in it and I was in a fucking cast and couldn't drive my stupid manual car! _

"She did have another run in with Talavera. This time she emptied a clip into him and called it a day."

I froze and slowly turned my head around to face the doorway. My heart clenched and I nearly felt lightheaded with the rush of happiness that swept through me. Ranger was standing there, but he looked pissed; anger swept off of him in nearly visible waves. Not to mention he was decked out in full commando gear and was sporting a few days' worth of stubble. He was a sight for sore eyes, even if he did look dangerous enough to kill a man with one glance. _God it was good to see him._

"A whole clip? Seems a bit wasteful," Jeanne commented smarmily, "One bullet should have done the trick," she added helpfully.

I ground my teeth and resisted the urge to hunt through my pocket book for my gun. _I'd show her what I could do with one bullet alright. _

"Dead is dead," Ranger said quietly, his eyes zeroed in on me with such focus I thought he might be trying to bore a hole through me.

_Was I on the receiving end of his anger? What had I done to piss him off? I hadn't seen or spoken to him in weeks. Maybe I was just copping his anger as an innocent bystander. I could hope, anyway. I didn't want him to be angry with me. I wanted him to be as happy to see me as I was him. I wanted him to stride over to me, lift me off the ground and give me one hell of a 'honey, I'm home' kiss. _Unfortunately, he didn't move._ And I was probably reading way too much into the intensity of his gaze as he looked at me, right?_

"Guess so," Jeanne agreed lightly.

His gaze focused back in on her. She made a move to step past Ranger and out of the office when he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a not so gentle shove back into the room.

_Uh oh. _The atmosphere in the office shifted. Power radiated off Ranger and his eyes said he meant business. _Holy shit, what the hell was going on? _I slid my eyes to the side and met Connie's. Connie's were as wide as I was sure mine were. Lula was slowly backing out of the main room, towards the bathroom_. Smart woman._

I pulled out my phone and texted Tank, '_911. Get to the bonds office NOW!' _I instantly received a reply, _'Outside. Got eyes on the situation. Hang tight.'_

"Got an anonymous tip a handful of weeks ago," Ranger began, his eyes now pinpointed on Jeanne.

She shifted nervously on her feet but didn't say anything. Ranger stepped in closer to her personal space. Her hand automatically moved to the piece at her side. Within a split second Ranger had her two weapons dismantled in pieces on the ground. Jeanne retreated a big step back from Ranger. I would have too. _Hell, I wanted to take a few steps backwards right now, but I figured I did not want that kind of attention to be focusing in on me.I wanted another sort of his undivided attention focused on me. Ahem._

I chanced a glance at Connie. Her eyes were now wide as saucers and darting back and forth between Ranger and Jeanne.

"I get this tip just a few hours after Stephanie is kidnapped and injured. A skip I'm tracking for the Feds was supposedly holed up in a piece of shit motel in Phoenix, Arizona. I wait. Next day I get another anonymous tip. More information on my skip and his movements in Phoenix. I get another tip the following day. I start getting the feeling that someone wants me out of Trenton. I send some men out to do recon. Turns out my skip is actually in fucking Phoenix Arizona. I ask myself, what the fuck is my skip doing half way across the fucking country when three days ago, I had eyes on him in Camden? I can't put it off any longer. I make sure my Babe is well guarded, then I fly out and grab him. He tells me some woman paid for his flight and gave him a new identity," Ranger said dangerously.

Jeanne was breathing heavily now, her eyes darting around the room, looking for an escape. _There was no escaping Ranger Mañoso, and he wasn't done yet._

"I make the transfer of my skip to the Feds. I start wondering if other events have been orchestrated by _some woman_. Get back in the State and I start doing some digging on Talavera. Start asking his crew about their funding. The past two weeks I've been tracking people, money, bank accounts and addresses all up and down the fucking east coast. Turns out Talavera got the ID Turner from _some woman_. Turned out she paid him a lot of money to do a hit and run so he'd be on Mañoso's woman's radar, then paid his bail when it didn't work out. Turned out Talavera wasn't focused on Stephanie until _some woman_ pointed him in that fucking direction and told him he could _own_ Ranger Mañosoif he just did away with his bitch. Not to mention the fucking enticing contract fee he'd receive when he got the job done."

_Oh boy. _I sucked in a deep breath as little black dots swam before my vision. I shoved my head between my knees as best as I could with my mostly healed ribs. I had a pretty good idea where this conversation was going and I didn't like it at all._ What the hell did Jeanne Ellen have against me that she'd send some sick murder-rapist after me?!_

"Know what else?" Ranger asked quietly, his tone sending shivers down my spine, and not the good kind.

I sat back up and watched the interaction between Ranger and Jeanne. She was pale now, starting to sweat. Ranger was pressed so close against her they could no doubt feel each other's chests rising and falling with each breath.

"Yesterday I get a call from a friend. Said some woman was trying to convince him to take _my_ woman off _my _hands. You took a big gamble there, Jeanne, approaching Cross. Too bad for you, he's got my back. He picked you out of my short list. Everything else fell into place after that and now I got concrete fucking proof."

I flinched as Ranger went for his waist, certain he was about to pull out his gun and finish Jeanne off right in front of me and Connie. Instead he grabbed a pair of cuffs off his belt and slapped them on Jeanne's wrists.

Jeanne burst into violent, angry sobs as Ranger dropped her to her knees and fastened shackles on her ankles. "You don't understand. You don't deserve her! You don't deserve anyone who loves you!" she screeched.

I sat dumbfounded as Ranger bent down to Jeanne's face and gave a harsh smile. "I may not deserve her, but she's mine and she's fucking perfect for me."

My heart stuttered in my chest. _What?_ Something very close to hope seemed to bloom inside me. _He thought I was perfect for him? I was his?_

"I should have killed her myself when I had the chance. I should have killed you the first time I laid eyes on you!" she screamed.

"You could have tried," Ranger said simply.

The door to the Bond's Office slammed open and the cavalry poured in. Local police officers, _including Joe Morelli,_ federal police officers and Ranger's men entered.

Tank moved directly over to my side and stood at parade rest. I figured he was there to get me out if anything turned ugly. Either that, or to stop me hightailing it away from scary Ranger. The thing was, his anger didn't scare me. Not one little bit. I knew there was a dark side to him, things he'd done in the past he wasn't proud of, things he still did now if it meant keeping someone he valued safe. I also knew he'd never physically hurt me and I respected his moral code, even if it didn't always match up with the law or what was black or white.

"You're under arrest for accomplice to kidnapping, conspiracy to murder, aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive, three counts of fraud and two counts of stalking. You have the right to remain silent," a federal officer said, reading Jeanne her rights.

Joe glanced at me from over Jeanne's head. He jerked his head in Ranger's direction and gave a brief nod. I offered him a wobbly smile back. We would be okay from now on; he'd just given his blessing. I almost couldn't believe it. _Not that I _needed_ his blessing or anything, it would just make things a lot smoother._

Jeanne Ellen struggled as two officers lifted her to her feet and managed to head butt one of them in the nose.

"And an additional count of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer of the law," the officer with the now bleeding nose added. They escorted Jeanne out of the Bond's Office and straight into an unmarked sedan.

"Wh-what?" I paused, cleared my throat and tried again. "What just happened here?" I asked quietly.

Ranger was suddenly in front of me, kneeling down so we were at eye level. His eyes travelled over me, top to bottom, slowly, thoroughly, until he was satisfied. With what, I wasn't quite sure. He leaned a little closer, his eyes now locked on mine, gauging my reaction. I waited, as patiently as I could. He gave a small nod, resting his arms along the arms of the chair, enveloping me.

"I bought the Rangeman building ten years ago, after a job for the FBI where we flushed out a wanted fugitive from the building, Lawrence Crawford. He went down fighting, didn't make it. Building was going cheap. It was a good investment so I invested. Turns out Jeanne was Crawford's lover. She used to go by the name of Jane Elise Bowen. Changed her identity and profession after Crawford died. First job I did with her wasn't until a few years later. Didn't notice any bad vibes. I should always trust your instincts, Babe."

I blinked at him. _What did my instincts have to do with anything? _"Huh?" I phrased eloquently.

"Jeanne Ellen. You didn't like her. Shoulda trusted that."

I blinked again at the seriousness of his tone and gave a quiet chuckle before bursting into laughter. _God, this was not an appropriate time to be laughing. If only he knew. _"I didn't _like_ her, Ranger, because I was _jealous_ of her," I explained lightly, unable to stop myself from smiling at him stupidly. _I was just so happy to see him. _

Ranger blinked at me twice, his hand reached out to grab mine, threading our fingers together. Goosebumps erupted along my arm and the hair at my neck stood on end. It was such a simple gesture but it felt so intimate in a room full of people.

"Why?" he wondered, disbelief blatant in his tone.

It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside to know that he was genuinely incredulous as to why _I _should be jealous of _her_. _He thought too much of me. _My belly contracted in pleasure. _He always thought the best of me._

"_Why_?! Because she's a total classy badass. She can handle herself, any weapon you put in her hand, and she brings her skips in with ease. She's an actual asset to you, instead of being a line item in your budget," I replied exasperatedly.

His thumb slid over our joined hands, making my skin tingle. My pulse fluttered in my neck._ God, he made me feel so safe and special._

"She's a homicidal maniac, Babe. You're warm, soft, loving, caring, and generous. She should be jealous of you," he said sincerely, the look in his eyes piercing me straight down to my soul.

I shivered with desire for this man before me. _Just take me now! Drag me into your stupid car, take me to the Batcave and make me yours forever. Damn, Steph. Pull yourself together_. Ranger's other hand reached forward and cupped my neck gently, this time his thumb brushed tenderly across my jaw. I automatically reached up and covered his hand with mine.

"Did she really do all of it? Accessory to kidnapping, conspiracy to murder, stalking, fraud?" I probed dimly.

"We had a camera outside the Rangeman building that they didn't disable. Not hooked up to our monitoring system, just an emergency back-up that's motion activated. Looks like Jeanne was in the car that Talavera took you in."

My mind flashed back. The feminine laughter. The _don't mess up our cow. The woman in Talavera's house had been Jeanne Ellen!_

"She was in the house; she knew Talavera had me. She _helped _Talavera get me," I said in a panic, everything really dawning on me at once.

"Shhhh, Babe. You're safe. You're safe," he repeated, drawing me into the warmth of his body. I trembled against him, drawing in his strength, savouring his touch. "Gotta go down to the police station, Babe. I'll see you at my apartment when I'm done," Ranger said, pulling back and staring deeply into my eyes.

His tone brooked no argument, and was a straight out order through and through. _Didn't hurt that I wanted to be there, or that I wanted to be the first thing he saw when he got home. _

I just gave a surprisingly acquiescent nod. Ranger watched me carefully before leaning forward and giving me an unrestrained kiss. My abdomen heated from the possessiveness of it; like he was branding me and sending a message to every man in the room. _Mine_. My heart fluttered with that almost hopeful feeling as I desperately kissed him back, trying to convey just how much I'd missed him. I knew my breathing was choppy and my cheeks were flushed as he slowly pulled away. _That had been one hell of a kiss. If his kiss meant half as much as it felt like it did, I was one helluva lucky woman. _Our eyes held contact for a few beats, the air practically vibrating between us before a federal agent called out to him. Ranger gave me a soft smile, briefly brushed his lips against mine and imparted a tiny nod before his face fell blank and he turned away.

I watched him move back over to the police officers in stunned silence. My brain couldn't process what had just happened. My heart was telling me our relationship had definitely stepped up a level; that we were actually _in_ some kind of relationship. That he cared about me a hell of a lot. My head was telling me to play it cool. Slowly but surely, everyone left until just Tank and Joe remained.

"Tread carefully," Tank warned as Joe approached.

I watched Joe warily.

"I have to go, Steph. Just wanted to make it clear that I'm okay with you and Ranger."

_Right, because we really need your permission? Uh, not that there was anything really going on anyway. Yet. A girl could hope. _"Thanks, Joe. I hope you and Jenny are very happy together."

Surprise lit up his face and then he considered me carefully. "You knew before I did, didn't you?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"I'd never heard you talk about one woman so much at once, not even me. She's perfect for you Joe. I really do hope it works out."

Joe ducked down and pressed a light, closed mouth kiss to my lips. It felt… platonic; _friendly_. _Halleluiah._

"We'll all catch up, soon." He smiled down at me with twinkling eyes.

"I want to meet Jenny's daughter!" I shouted at him as he exited the Bond's Office. He saluted me and climbed into his POS, no doubt off to follow where everyone else had gone.

"Let's go, Bomber." Tank picked up my purse and swung it over his shoulder. Then his arm slid around my waist and he hauled me onto my feet. I gave Connie a dumbfounded little wave and moved with Tank out the door, into Ranger's idling futuristic SUV. _Too bad Ranger wasn't inside it._

* * *

_TBC..._

**A/N: **I'm so sad - only two chapters left! *Sniff*


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